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Frontispiece. (See page 9.) 



OR, 



THE WAT TO SUCCESS. 






BY THE LATE 

REV. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. 






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c O?YRlGA/ r 'HA 



PHILADELPHIA : 

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

1122 Chestnut Street. 

New York: 8 & 10 Bible House. 



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[Copyright, 1891, by The Amebican Sunday-School Union.] 






a. 



3*? 2, ^ 5 






PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



THESE "Talks" have been selected from 
many valuable articles of the late Dr. 
Richard Newton written for The Youth's World 
and other periodicals of the American Sunday- 
School Union. They are written in that earnest, 
happy vein which was characteristic of the author, 
charming the reader by their sparkling simplicity, 
and captivating him by practical sense and great 
wisdom, enforced by the most apt and striking 
illustrations. Young persons are ever puzzling 
over the daily questions of life and how to succeed 
in the world ; and no recent writer has shown the 
skill to guide and help them better than Dr. 
Newton. 

It is only proper to add that he gave to the 
writer of this note permission and full authority 
to issue in a book any of his articles written for 
the periodicals of the Sunday-School Union. 
These from among his ripest thoughts written for 
persons in every walk of life cannot fail to interest 
a wide circle of readers. E. "W. R. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1891. 

(5) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGH 

I.— LOOKING AHEAD 9 

II.— A MEMBER OF THE " TRY COMPANY" . . 15 
III.— THE SUNSHINY SHOEMAKER ..... 21 

IV.— THE GOOD BUILDER 27 

V.— THE BLIND MAN AND HIS LESSONS ... 33 
VI. — THE LITTLE GIRL AND HER PET .... 39 

VII. — " I WANT SOME MORE " 42 

VIIL— THE BEST JEWEL 48 

IX. — THE BABY AND ITS LESSONS 54 

X. — THE FIRESIDE LESSON 60 

XL— THE BEST LOOKING-GLASS ...... 67 

XII.— THE FARM-YARD SKETCH 73 

XIII.— SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK AMONG THE INDIANS 76 

XIV. — MISSIONARY RAFTS 82 

XV.— THE SHAH OF PERSIA AND HIS OFFICERS . 88 
XVI.— THE LITTLE MISSIONARY ; OR, LEARNING TO 

DO GOOD 94 

XVII. — THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. — THE START . . 103 

XVIII. —THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. — THE OUTFIT . .109 

XIX. — THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. — THE STRUGGLE . 115 

XX. — THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. — THE VICTORY . .120 

XXI. — LESSONS FROM DOGS 127 

XXII. — THE TIGER TRAP 133 

(7) 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXIII.— THE SAILOR'S HOME 139 

XXIV.— THE DEER'S LESSON 147 

XXV.— THE HAPPY FAMILY 153 

XXVI. — LESSONS FROM THE FOXES . . . . .158 

XXVII. —A TALK ABOUT BEARS 164 

XXVIII. —THE BEST GARDENER 170 

XXIX. — THE DANGER OF TEMPTATION 176 

XXX. — DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND HOW TO MEET 

THEM 182 

XXXI.— OUR FATHER'S CARE 188 

XXXII. —ICEBERGS 197 

XXXIII. —TAKING IN THE FLYING JIB .... 202 
XXXIV.— HOUSETOPS IN THE EAST . . . • . .208 

XXXV.— SWINGING GRANDPA 217 

XXXVI. —LESSONS IN NATURAL HISTORY . . .223 

XXXVII. — A PLEASANT SURPRISE 229 

XXXVIII. —YOUNG SAILORS, AND WHAT THEY NEED 234 

XXXIX. — THE POWER OF KINDNESS 240 

XL.— THANKSGIVING FOR DAILY FOOD . . 246 

XLI. — THE UNEXPECTED DANGER 252 

XLIL— WILLIAM PENN 258 

XLIIL— A HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN HARD TIMES . 266 

XLIV. — SUMMER NOON 272 

XLV. — THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL .... 283 
XLVL— A NEW YEAR'S GREETING.— THE LIFE 

BOAT 288 

XLVH. — A NEW YEAR'S LESSON.— KINDNESS TO 

ANIMALS 297 

XLVHL— A COMING DOWN 303 



CHAPTER I. 

LOOKING AHEAD.. 

~TTT"HEX we stand on the top of a hill that 
▼ » overlooks a broad and beautiful landscape, 
it is an interesting thing to look carefully at the 
different objects that are there before us. If we 
have a good glass to look through, as the little girl 
has, it will be a great help to us. We can see 
further and clearer with the glass than without it. 
We cannot tell where this girl is standing, or at 
what she is looking ; but the sight of this picture 
may well remind us of what we ought to do at the 
beginning of every year of our life. 

When a birthday comes, it seems to set us down 
on the top of a hill ; and the year on which we 
are then entering is like a landscape that opens out 
before us. Every new year that Ave enter on is 
like the beginning of a new journey, or the open- 
ing of another chapter in our lives ; and as we look 
at this little girl, earnestly gazing at something 
that interests her, we may well learn a lesson from 
her. 

It is the lesson of looking ahead. I do not mean 

(9) 



10 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

that we should give way to the foolish and sinful 
feeling that some people have, when they go to 
what are called " fortune-tellers.'' This is a wicked 
thing to do. The people who profess to do thus, 
put themselves in the place of God, and pretend to 
tell what will happen to particular persons, to- 
morrow, or next week, or next month. This is 
what none but God can do. This is not what we 
mean by looking ahead. 

The lesson suggested by this little girl may lead 
us to speak a little about three things connected 
with looking ahead. One of these refers to what 
we can see when we look ahead. Another refers 
to what we cannot see in looking ahead. The third 
refers to what we need in starting ahead. 

1. What we can see when we look ahead. 

We can see spring and summer and autumn and 
winter this year, the same as in other years. We 
can see storms sweeping over land and sea ; ship- 
wrecks and railroad accidents we know will take 
place ; fires will break out in different places, and 
burn up houses and property; children will be 
sick with croup, measles and scarlet-fever ; grown 
people will be sick, too, with diseases of different 
kinds ; about the same number of people will die 
the coming year that have died in other years. It 
is reckoned that sixty people die every minute ; and 
so every time the clock ticks throughout the com- 
ing year somebody will be dying. And then 



LOOKING AHEAD. 11 

births will continue to take place a little faster 
than deaths ; oftener than the clock ticks, a baby 
will be born somewhere or other. 

The same sort of evil things will happen the 
coming year that have happened in other years. 
Men will cheat, and lie, and swear, and rob, and 
murder, and be put in prison, and be hung. 

And the same sort of good things will happen 
in time to come that have happened before. Min- 
isters will preach, and teachers will tell about 
Jesus, and Sunday scholars will seek Jesus, and get 
new hearts, and be made happy and useful. These 
are some of the things we can see when we look 
ahead. 

2. Things ice cannot see, as ice look ahead. 

We cannot tell who of us are to be sick or who 
are to die within a year. As the Apostle James 
says, " Ye know not what shall be on. the mor- 
row." Some may lose their brothers and sisters ; 
some may lose dear friends and loving parents 
before this year is over. But no one can tell to 
whom these things will happen. We cannot see 
what changes may take place, or what trials may 
come upon us within a year ; and if this is so, then 
we may well think of 

3. What ice need in starting ahead. 

We shall have duties to do, and we shall need 
strength to do them. We shall have dangers to 
meet, and we shall need protection from those dan- 



12 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

gers. Sometimes we shall not know what is the 
right thing to do, and we shall need guidance to 
lead us in the right way. At other times we shall 
be in trouble, and shall need some one to comfort 
us. We need some friend who can always be with 
us, and who can give us these four — strength, and 
protection, and guidance, and comfort. But Jesus, 
our beloved Saviour, is the only one who can give 
us all these things. If we seek him as our Friend, 
he will always be with us, and will give us all 
that we may need. We have a good looking-ahead 
text in Isaiah 33 : 2 ; it is this : — "Be thou their 
arm every morning." Every morning let us pray 
that God will be our " arm." If we take hold of 
this " arm " and lean on it, we shall find in it the 
four things that we have been speaking of. It 
will give us all the strength, and protection, and 
guidance, and comfort that we may need. And if 
we have these " every morning," then we will cer- 
tainly have a happy time, Looking Ahead. 



CHAPTER II. 



THIS little fellow, we can see at a glance, is 
trying hard to learn to write. And if he 
only keeps on trying he will be sure to succeed. 

Some time ago a gentleman was traveling in a 
railway car. In the seat before him was a boy 
who had a parcel on his knee. The parcel was 
tied up with a string, which the boy was trying to 
untie. The knot was a tight one. After watching 
the boy for a while, the gentleman put his hand in 
his pocket, and took out his penknife. Opening the 
knife he said, " Here, my friend, let me cut the string 
for you. I don't think you can untie that knot." 

The boy looked up at him with a smile and said, 
"Thank you, sir. But I belong to the 'Try 
Company.' My father tells me, when I begin to 
do anything, always to keep on trying till I do it." 
Then he went on working away at the knot, till at 
last he got it untied. 

Now the " Try Company " is a very good com- 
pany to join. I would like all my young friends 

(15) 



16 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

to join it. I wish to speak of two things for 
which trying is useful. And these make two good 
reasons for joining this company. 

1. We ought to join this company, for one thing, 
because trying is useful in getting good for ourselves. 
If we could follow the history of the boy in our 
picture, no doubt we should get a good illustration 
of this part of our subject. We cannot do this. 
But here is an illustration of the same kind which 
I know to be true. 

A gentleman was on the school committee in a 
little town in New England. One day he visited 
the school, as it was his duty to do. It happened 
to be the time when the scholars were engaged with 
their writing lessons. He went around from desk 
to desk examining the copy-books. Some of them 
were very nicely written, while others were not so 
well done. At length he came to the desk of one 
little fellow who was the poorest writer in the 
school. When the other scholars saw the gentle- 
man look at this boy's book, they knew what ugly 
scrawls he would see there, and they laughed. 
This made the boy feel so badly that he covered his 
face with his hands and burst into tears. 

The gentleman felt sorry for the boy, and patting 
him kindly on the shoulder he asked, "What is 
your name, my little man ? " 

" My name is Charley, sir," said the boy. 

" Charley, lend me your pen a minute/ 7 said the 



A MEMBER OF THE "TRY COMPANY:' 17 

visitor. He took the pen, and sat down and wrote 
his own name on the copy-book, in a nice, large, 
round hand. Then he said, " Now, Charley, look 
at that. I remember when I couldn't write a bit 
better than you do. But I made up my mind to 
try to be a good writer. And you see how well I 
succeeded. Don't be discouraged, Charley. Try, 
and keep on trying, and you'll get to be one of the 
best writers in the school." 

About twenty years or more afterwards this 
gentleman was attending a public meeting in a 
western town. At the close of the meeting a gen- 
tleman came up and shook him warmly by the 
hand, saying, " You don't remember me, sir, do 
you?" "No, I do not." "Well, sir, do you 
remember, years ago, visiting the school in such a 
town, and writing your name on the copy-book of 
a boy named Charley, and telling him that, if he 
tried, he might become the best writer in the 
school ?" " Yes, I remember that," " Well, sir, 
I am Charley. I took your advice. I did try. I 
became one of the best writers in that school. I 
am the governor of this state now. And I owe it 
all to the lesson of trying which you taught me on 
that day." This shows us how useful trying is in 
getting good for ourselves. 

2. But there is another reason for joining this 
company, and that is, trying is useful in doing good 
to others. It would be easy enough to fill a vol- 



18 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

ume with illustrations of this part of our subject. 
But I make room for one. 

More than a hundred years ago Robert Raikes 
was going through the streets of Gloucester, Eng- 
land, one Sabbath da}'. He saw crowds of young 
people seeking to amuse themselves, without any 
thought of God, of their souls, or of eternity. The 
thought came into his mind how much good might 
be done if these young people could be gathered 
together and taught the word of God. Then the 
question arose, " Why should it not be ? " And 
then he said to himself, u Vll try" He did try. 
That was the beginning of the modern system of 
the great work of Sunday-school instruction. This 
work has gone round the world. It has carried 
the blessings of life and peace, of comfort and 
salvation, to uncounted numbers of homes and 
hearts. 

Then let us all join the " Try Company," for 
these two good reasons : because trying is useful in 
getting good for ourselves ; and in doing good to 
others. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SUNSHINY SHOEMAKER. 

THE shoemaker in this picture is occupying a 
lowly position. His business is to sit on 
that humble bench, in that little shop, and make 
or mend shoes. But his position is an honest and 
useful one, and this makes it honorable. All 
honest work is honorable. Our friend in the picture 
looks as though he felt that he was honorably 
engaged. What a bright and cheerful face he has ! 
He looks as though he might have been the man of 
whom a good story is told. Some one asked him 
the question, "Have you got much religion?" 
His reply was, " Just enough to help me make and 
mend shoes well." 

The catechism of the Episcopal Church teaches 
that one important part of our work as Christians 
is " to do our duty in that state of life in which it has 
pleased God to ccdl us." I know not whether the 
shoemaker here represented was a Presbyterian, or 
a Methodist, or a Baptist, or an Episcopalian. 
But it makes little difference, if he was only a 

(21) 



22 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

good Christian. He looks like a cheerful, sun- 
shiny Christian. 

There are three good reasons why all Christians 
should be cheerful and sunshiny. 

1 . One reason is, that they have good company. 
God our Saviour goes with us wherever we 

are. He said to Jacob at Bethel, " I will not leave 
thee, until I have done that which I have spoken 
to thee of" (Gen. 28 : 15). He says to each of us, 
" Fear thou not ; for I am with thee" (Isa. 41 : 10). 
And the apostle tells us, that " truly our fellow- 
ship," or companionship, " is with the Father, and 
with his Son Jesus Christ " (1 John 1 : 3). There 
is no better company than this for any one to have. 
And if we are Christians, the thought of having such 
good company may well make us cheerful and 
sunshiny. This was just what good John Newton 
felt when speaking of the presence of Jesus; he 
said : 

" While blest with a sense of his love, 

A palace a toy would appear ; 
And prisons would palaces prove, 

If Jesus would dwell with me there." 

2. But Christians ought to be cheerful and 
sunshiny, because they have not only good com- 
pany, but also a good supply. 

If you and I had to go on a journey for two 
or three days, and knew not where we could get 
anything to eat or drink till we came back, we 



THE SUNSHINY SH0F3IAKER. 23 

could not be very cheerful. But if we had a 
large basket with us, full of all kinds of nice pro- 
visions, then we might well be cheerful. 

Now, just look at one of the sweet promises 
God gives us when we begin to serve him. It is 
written in Phil. 4:19, and reads thus : " My God 
shall supply all your need according to his riches 
in glory by Christ Jesus." This is like a big 
basket filled with everything that we can need 
on our way to heaven. In the 84th Psalm the 
Psalmist tells us about some of the good things 
that are in this basket. He mentions water to 
drink, and strength to walk and work with, and 
a shield to protect us, and a sun to give us light, 
and grace to give us comfort, and glory to give us 
encouragement. Here are seven good things men- 
tioned as in this basket ; and then we are told that 
"no good thing" is left out of it (Ps. 84: 11). 
Surely this is a good supply ; and those who have 
it ought to be cheerful. 

3. And then there is another thing that should 
help to make us cheerful and sunshiny if we are 
trying to serve God : we not only have good com- 
pany and a good supply, but also a good prospect. 

If a boy is playing truant, and knows that 
when he gets home at night there is a flogging 
awaiting him, he has a bad prospect before him. 
That is enough to make him feel uncomfortable 
all day. But if a boy is doing an errand for his 



24 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

father, and is doing it well ; if he knows that 
when he gets home at night his father's approving 
words, "Well done," and his loving kiss are 
awaiting him — this may well help to make him 
happy and cheerful all the day. 

And this is just our case if we are trying to 
love and serve the blessed Saviour. When we die 
and go home to him, his loving words to each of 
us will be, " Well done, good and faithful servant 
. . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." This is a 
good prospect to have before us. And this should 
help to make us cheerful and sunshiny. David 
was looking both at the supply for the way in 
which he was walking, and at the prospect at the 
end of that way, when he said, " Surely goodness 
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life : 
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever " 
(Ps. 23 : 6). And if we have these three good 
things : good company, a good supply, and a good 
prospect, we ought to be cheerful and sunshiny. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE GOOD BUILDER. 



HERE is a boy who is busy with his building 
blocks. "We may well feel an interest in 
this kind of work, because we all have something 
to do Avith building. I do not mean to say that 
we shall all be carpenters or masons ; but I mean 
that we all have a character to make of one kind 
or other : either a good character or a bad one. 
This character may be compared to a building, 
and Ave in making it may well be called builders. 
We are good builders, or bad builders, according 
to the kind of building we are putting up. We 
find the matter thus spoken of in the Bible. This 
is what the apostle Jude means, in the twentieth 
verse of his short epistle, when he says, " But ye, 
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy 
faith." When we are learning to form good 
habits, and do what is right, Ave are making a 
good character ; and this, like a building, is growing 
broader, and higher, and more beautiful. But if 
Ave are doing wrong things, then Ave are making a 

(27) 



28 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

bad character, and our building is becoming ill- 
shaped and ugly. 

Now, if we wish to be good builders, or, as 
Paul says, " wise master builders/' and make for 
ourselves a good character, there are three things 
we must be sure to get. 

1. In the first place we must have a good plan. 
If we should see a man begin to build a church 
or a house without first having a plan of the build- 
ing drawn, we should think he was very foolish. 
Before beginning to put up a building of any 
kind, a wise man will always have a plan of it 
drawn. This plan will show how wide, how long, 
how high the building is to be ; how many rooms 
there are to be in it, how many doors and windows 
there are to be, and where each of them is to be 
placed. It is impossible to make a building of 
any kind that will be satisfactory, without a good 
plan. 

And it is just the same when we begin the 
building up of our characters. We must have a 
good plan. And when we get this plan we must 
be careful to follow it, and make our own characters 
just like it. We must look to the Bible for this 
plan. Here we find it in the life and character of 
our blessed Saviour. He came down from heaven 
to show us how to be good builders, "Leaving us 
an example, that ye should follow his steps." And 
if we try to " tread in the blessed steps of his 



THE GOOD BVILDER. 29 

most holy life ; " to say and do what he would be 
likely to say and do, if he were in our place — 
then we shall be copying his example, or following 
the plan he has left us, and we certainly shall be 
good builders. 

2. But the second thing we must have, if we 
would be successful in this sort of building, is a 
good foundation. 

Our Saviour taught us, in one of his beautiful 
parables, that if a man should build his house on 
the sand without a foundation, it would show that 
he was a foolish man. For, in the time of trial, 
when the rain descended, and the floods came, 
and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, 
it fell. But a house that had its foundation on a 
rock would stand safely in the time of trial, and 
this would prove that the builder was a wise man. 

And when we are building a character, a good 
foundation is just as important as when we are 
building a house. And if we look into the Bible, 
it is easy to find out the rock on which we must 
build if we want to make a good character. The 
apostle Paul shows us this when he says, " Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3: 11). But you may 
ask, How can Christ be our foundation ? What 
is meant by building up our characters on him? 
It means that we must trust him for the pardon 
of our sins, and for our right to enter heaven. 



30 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

The hymn says, "Trusting Jesus, that is all;" 
and this is true. For when we are hoping to be 
saved, not for anything good in ourselves, but for 
what Jesus has done for us, then it may well be 
said that we are building; on him. 

3. And then there is one other thing that we 
must have if we would be successful in this kind 
of building, and this is good materials. 

The apostle speaks of some persons using " wood, 
hay, stubble " in making a building. It would be 
impossible to have a good building by using such 
materials as these. But then he speaks of other 
persons who work with "gold, silver, precious 
stones." These are good materials. They would 
make a splendid building. 

If we are only loving ourselves, and trying to 
please ourselves, then all that we can do in build- 
ing up our characters will be like the " wood, hay, 
stubble " of which the apostle speaks (1 Cor. 3 : 
12). These are bad materials, and the building 
made in using them must be a bad building. But 
if we learn to love the blessed Saviour, and try to 
please him, this will turn all that we do into " gold, 
silver, precious stones." 

Then let us all try to get these three things : 
this good plan, this good foundation, and these 
good materials, and so we shall be good builders. 



pjn W j;!i5'.i;i J 







CHAPTER V. 

THE BLIND MAN AND HIS LESSONS. 

WHAT a sad sight it is to see a blind man ! 
How sorrowful to think of all he misses ! 
He never can see the bright sun shining in his 
beauty. He never can see the green fields, or the 
waving grain, or the running brooks, or the beau- 
tiful flowers, or the swelling hills, or the great 
mountains, or the blue sky that God has made. 
He never can see the silvery moon as she walks 
forth in her loveliness, nor the twinkling stars as 
they shine in the heavens by night. 

He never can look upon the faces of those who 
love him ; never see the light that kindles in their 
eyes, or the sweet smiles that play over their coun- 
tenances, just as the sunshine plays over the land- 
scape. And then he never can walk with comfort 
or confidence, but is obliged to move slowly and 
carefully, feeling his way along step by step. And 
yet, when we look thoughtfully at a poor blind 
man, like the one in our picture, it may very well 
teach us some good lessons. Let us look for a 
moment at some of these. 

(33) . 



34 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

1. One lesson that the sight of such a blind man 
may teach us is the lesson of pity. 

How many comforts and blessings we have 
which the blind man can never share ! This 
should make us feel very loving and tender towards 
him, and should lead us to try to help him and 
comfort him all we can. This is just what the two 
little girls in our picture are doing. They look as 
though they were pitying the poor man ; and one 
of them is dropping a piece of money into the little 
basket which the blind man's dog is holding in his 
mouth. We should feel pity for the blind when 
we see them. 

2. Another lesson which the sight of the blind 
man should teach us is the lesson of gratitude. 

When we have things every day and all the 
time, we are very apt to forget how valuable they 
are, and how much we owe to God for giving them 
to us. People who have never been sick can hardly 
understand what a blessing it is to be well. If we 
have never had the headache, or the earache, we do 
not know how to be properly thankful for heads 
and ears that do not ache. And so with our eyes. 
We open them every morning, and use them all 
the day, and it is hard for us to feel grateful as we 
should, for the power to use our eyes so freely. 
But suppose an unseen hand should fasten a band- 
age over our eyes, a bandage we had no power to 
remove, in the midst of our day's work or our 



THE BLIND MAN AND HIS LESSONS. 35 

day's play ; how dreadful it would be ! We could 
not read ; we could not work ; we could not walk ; 
we could not play ; our one constant cry would be, 
"Oh, take it off! take it off!" And when at 
last it was taken off, how grateful we should feel 
for the use of our eyes ! And this is one lesson 
the sight of a blind man should teach us. It 
should make us grateful for the use of our eyes. 

3. And then there is one other lesson the sight 
of a blind man may teach us, and this is the lesson 
of hope. 

God has told us that the time is coming when 
" the eyes of the blind shall be opened " (Isa. 35 : 
5). Jesus opened the eyes of the blind when he 
was on earth. But he did not open the eyes of all 
the blind. There were only a few blind men whom 
he thus blessed. Multitudes of them were left to 
grope their way in darkness. Their eyes were not 
opened. But the promise of Isaiah, spoken of 
above, refers to all the blind. I suppose this 
promise refers to heaven. There will be no blind 
-people in heaven! The prophet Isaiah gives us 
another sweet promise, that we know refers to 
heaven. He says in one place, u Thine eyes shall 
see the king in his beauty" (Isa. 33: 17). This 
will be true of all who go to heaven. How many 
beautiful things there will be for us to see in 
heaven ! How beautiful the golden streets of that 
heavenly city will be ! And the pearly gates, and 



36 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

the jewelled walls, and the glorious angels will all 
be very beautiful. But the most blessed and beau- 
tiful thing about heaven will be, that there we 
shall see Jesus. As he said in his wonderful 
prayer, we shall be with him where he is, that 
we may behold his glory (John 17 : 24). Behold- 
ing his glory, and seeing him in his beauty, both 
mean the same thing. And this is what we shall 
all see in heaven, if we love and serve Jesus. And 
so, when we see a blind man, these are the lessons 
the sight should teach us : a lesson of pity, a lesson 
of gratitude, a lesson of hope. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE LITTLE GIRL AND HER PET. 

~VVT"HAT a pretty picture this is ! Here we 
» » see a good-natured, pleasant-looking little 
girl. She is sitting on a rug with her pet kitten 
in her lap. The little girl looks pleased, and 
pussy looks pleased too. We see one of pussy's 
paws resting gently on the little girPs left arm. 
Pussy seems well satisfied with her little mistress, 
and the place she occupies on her lap. As we look 
at her, we can almost fancy that we hear the low 
purring noise that cats are accustomed to make 
when they are pleased. Hidden away in that paw, 
that rests so gently there, are sharp ugly claws, that 
could tear the skin from that arm in a minute, and 
make the blood come. But when pussy is treated 
gently and kindly, she finds no use for those claws, 
and so they do not appear. 

1. The lesson of gentleness. — This is a lesson we 
should all try to learn and practice. It is the 
lesson that Jesus was speaking of when he said, 
" Learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart " 

(39) 



40 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

(Matt. xi. 29). He meant by this to say that he 
is gentle, and that he wants us all to be like him. 
And this is the view of our Saviour's character 
that we are taught to think of when we offer to 
him that sweet prayer, written for the little ones, 
which begins, 

" Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, 
Look upon a little child." 

2. Gentleness is a very pleasant thing, and this is a 
good reason why we should learn this lesson. 

When we go into the woods in summertime, and 
see the nice soft velvety moss growing over the 
rocks, how pleasant it is to sit down on that moss ! 
It would be very disagreeable to sit on the rough, 
hard rock if it were not for the moss that covers 
it. But this grows over the hard rock, and makes 
a pleasant seat for us. And gentleness in our 
homes is just as pleasant a thing as the moss is in 
the woods. It covers up the rough, sharp points 
of ill-temper, and makes every one feel com- 
fortable. 

" Mother/' said little Nanny one day, " some- 
times pussy has paws and sometimes she has claws ; 
isn't that funny? She pats with her paws and 
plays prettily, but she scratches with her claws, and 
then I don't like her. I wish she had no claws, 
but only soft little paws. Then she would never 
scratch, but would always be nice and gentle." 

" Well, Nanny dear," said her mother, " remem- 



THE LITTLE GIRL AND HER PET. 41 

ber that you are very much like pussy. Those 
little hands, so soft and tender, when well em- 
ployed, are like pussy's paws, very pleasant to feel. 
But when they pinch, or scratch, or strike in anger, 
then they are like pussy's claws." 

"Well, that's funny enough, mother; I never 
thought I was so much like pussy." 

" You love pussy very much," said her mother, 
" and you may learn a good lesson from her. 
When you think kind thoughts, and speak gentle, 
loving words, then you are like pussy with her 
nice soft paws, and everybody will love you. But 
when you think bad thoughts, or give way to ugly 
tempers, and speak cross and angry words, then 
you are like pussy with her sharp, scratching claws, 
and nobody will love you." 

Nice soft paws are much pleasanter than sharp, 
tearing claws. And so gentleness is much better 
than anger or wrath, and this is a good reason why 
we should learn the lesson of gentleness. 

An old gentleman remarkable for his gentleness, 
was asked once how he had learned to be so gentle. 
He said it was "byprayi/ng to God and speaking 
low." Let us try to learn this lesson in the same 
way. Remember the closing words of Dr. Watt's 
sweet hymn, 

" Let love through all your actions run, 
Let all your words be mild ; 
Live like the blessed Virgin's Son, 
That sweet and gentle child." 



CHAPTER VII. 

" I WANT SOME MORE ! " 

THIS is what the little girl in the picture seems 
to be saying. You can see in a moment that 
she has a good appetite. She has eaten up what 
was first given to her. How nicely she has cleaned 
off her plate ! And as we look at her we almost 
hear her say, " I want some more, please ! " And 
this is what we all have to say every day. When 
we use the Lord's prayer, and say, " Give us this 
day our daily bread," we are asking our Father in 
heaven for more. And as we stop and look at this 
picture, we may fancy that it speaks to us about 
three things. 

1. One is this, how much we need! 

When we wake in the morning how soon we 
feel hungry, and need something to eat ! We get 
our breakfast and go to school. We come home 
at noon feeling hungry again, and like the little 
girl in the picture, each of us is ready to say, " I 
want some more, please ! " We eat our dinner 
and go to work, or to walk, or to play during the 

(42) 



"I WANT SOME MORE" 45 

afternoon ; and by the time evening comes we are 
hungry again, and " more, please," just tells what 
our feeling is. After supper we are tired and need 
rest. And this is the history, not of one day only, 
but of every day of our lives. We are thirsty, 
and we need drink. We are hungry, and we need 
food. We are tired, and need rest. Our clothes 
wear out, and we need new ones. What multi- 
tudes of people, like the little girl in our picture, 
are ready to say every day, and many times a day, 
" We want more." More food, more drink, more 
clothes, more rest, and more of other things are 
needed constantly. And when we think of all 
this, we may well say, How much we need ! 

2. And then, as we look at this picture again, 
another thing it seems to say to us is how much 
God gives ! 

The food we eat when we are hungry, God gives 
us. The water we drink when thirsty, God gives 
us. The clothes we put on when naked, God gives 
us. The rest we take when weary, and the fuel 
we use to warm us when cold, God gives us. And 
not to us only, but to all, God gives these things. 
He gives them to the rich, as well as to the poor ; 
to kings and princes, as well as to beggars. Yes, 
and God is giving such things to other creatures as 
well as to ourselves. To the birds of the air, to 
the beasts of the field, and to the fishes of the sea, 
he gives everything they need. David is speaking 



46 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

of all these things when he says : " Thou openest 
thine hand, they are filled with good " (Ps. 104 : 
28). And Paul says, " He giveth to all life, and 
breath, and all things" (Acts 17 : 25). What a 
wenderful giver God is ! He never stops giving, 
any more than the sun stops shining. When we 
want more, he always has more to give. What- 
ever we need either for our souls or bodies, he is 
ready to give. We go to him many times a day, 
and he supplies all our need. When we think of 
all that God is giving us continually, how well we 
may say in the language of the hymn : 

" More and more, more and more, 
Always more to follow ; 
Oh, his matchless, boundless love ! 
Still there's more to follow." 

3. When we remember how much we need, and 
how much God gives, it may well remind us, how 
much we owe to God. 

And there are two ways in which we may pay 
God what we owe him. One of these is with our lips. 
In this way we can give him thanks and praise. 
This was Avhat David meant when he said, " My 
mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips " (Ps. 63 : 
5). This is what our lips and tongues were made 
for. It is right to say " thank you " to our friends 
for any favor they do us, however small. Then 
how much more should we "Praise God from 



"I WANT SOME MORE." 47 

whom all blessings flow ! " But then, we should 
thank him by our lives, as well as by our lips. 
And we do this when we learn to give to others, 
because God gives to us. And till God stops giv- 
ing to us, we never should stop giving to others. 

Let us take our last look at the picture, and 
think of these three things : how much we need, 
how much God gives, and how much we owe to him. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BEST JEWEL. 

HOW many different kinds of jewels there are ! 
There is the pearl, the topaz, the ruby, the 
sapphire, the diamond, and many others. But 
which is the best jewel ? A child, in the arms of 
a Christian mother or sister, is a jewel with which 
none other can compare. This is the best jewel. 

A Roman lady had once been showing her beauti- 
ful jewels to another lady. When she got through 
she asked to see her friend's jewels. This friend 
was a mother. She had two fine boys. Pointing 
to them as they entered the room, she said, "These 
are my jewels" This was true. It was a noble 
answer even for a heathen mother to give. But it 
is a nobler answer still for a Christian mother or a 
Christian teacher to give. A child, like that which 
this friend is holding in her arms, is the best of all 
jewels. Many reasons might be given to prove 
that this is true. But we have only room to men- 
tion three. 

A Christian child is the best jewel since, 

(48) 



THE BEST JEWEL. 51 

1. It is the most valuable. — Suppose you have a 
ruby, or a diamond, or any other jewel of that 
kind. If you wish to know how valuable it is, or 
how much it is worth, you have only to take it to 
a jeweler and ask him how much it is worth, and 
he will tell you at once what its value is. But 
who can tell how much the soul of a child — this 
best jewel — is worth? Jesus understands this 
question better than any one else, and he has told 
us that this jewel is worth more than the whole 
world. This is more than can be said of all the 
other jewels in the world put together. And so 
we may say that the soul of a child is the best 
jewel because it is the most valuable. 

Again it is the best jewel, because, 

2. It is the most beautiful. — Jewels are very 
beautiful. Look at the bright red color of the 
ruby ; or the clear blue of the sapphire ; or the 
sparkling brightness of the diamond. These are 
beautiful indeed. Yet these are as nothing com- 
pared to the beauty that marks the soul of a child 
that is learning to love Jesus, and trying to be like 
him. This is one reason why God calls his people 
his jewels (Mai. 3 : 17). And this is why we are 
told that he greatly desires their " beauty " (Ps. 
45: 11). 

When we look at a pearl, or a diamond, or any 
other jewel of this kind, we see at once all the 
beauty that belongs to it. If we look at it again 



52 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

to-morrow, or next month, or next year, it will be 
just the same that it is to-day. Its beauty does 
not grow or increase. But it is very different with 
this best jewel of which we are speaking. This 
will grow more beautiful from day to day. And 
this increase of its beauty will go on through life, 
as it grows more like Jesus. And when this life 
ends, the increasing beauty of this best jewel will 
not end. There will never be an end to this. It 
will go on growing more and more beautiful 
through all eternity. This is a good reason then for 
saying that the soul of a child is the best jewel. 
It is more beautiful than any other jewel. 

But then there is another reason why the soul 
of a Christian child is the best jewel : 

3. It is the most useful. — We use jewels for orna- 
ments. When we look at the sparkling beauty be- 
longing to them, we find pleasure in the sight. 
But that is about all the good they can do. They 
set us no good example. They teach us no useful 
lessons. They never led one soul to Jesus. We 
cannot try to make ourselves like them. But it is 
different with the best jewels of which we are 
speaking. What beautiful examples have been set, 
and what useful lessons have been taught, by chil- 
dren who are loving and serving Jesus ! How 
many illustrations of this might be given ! But 
we have only room for one. 

What Lou did. — " We have queer girls at our 
school," said little Lou to her cousin Hal. 



THE BEST JEWEL. 53 

" Why ? Do they wear old dresses, or bonnets, 
or anything of that sort?" asked her cousin. 

" No ! " said Lou, eagerly. " But there are so 
many things they won't believe. For instance, 
there's Lucy Smith, who says there's no use in 
being a Christian ; for those she knows are no bet- 
ter than other people." 

" Can't you show her there is something real in 
being a Christian ? " 

" I'm only a little girl, Cousin Hal." 

" Yes, darling ; but I am sure there must be 
some way for little girls, even, to show their love 
for Jesus." 

Lou began to be very careful about what she said 
and did, and she asked God to fill her heart with 
love to everybody, even to those who were unkind 
to her. Not long after this Lucy Smith came to 
her one day at recess, and whispered, 

" Dear Lou, I want to take back all I said about 
Christians. I've been watching you, and you are 
so kind to that disagreeable Sue Nolau, though she 
does all she can to vex you, that I am sure Jesus 
helps you. After all, Lou, I would like very 
much to be a Christian." 

This made that little girl feel very happy. She 
was one of the best jewels. Children like her are 
the best jewels because they are more valuable, 
more beautiful, and more useful, than any other 
jewels. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BABY AND ITS LESSONS. 

HERE we have a very pretty picture of a 
nursery. There is the cradle with the new 
baby in it, sleeping quietly. Behind the cradle is a 
bureau, with the big, old family Bible lying on the 
top of it. To the left of the bureau sits the baby's 
mother. She is busy sewing. At her side sits the 
baby's eldest sister. She is busy too, attending to 
something in her lap. But she has stopped a 
moment in her work, and is looking earnestly at 
the baby. Her little sister stands between her and 
the cradle. She is looking at the baby too ; but 
you can see in a moment that she is not at all 
pleased with the baby for coming. We shall have 
something more to say about this presently. 

The dear little helpless baby ! Look at it as it 
lies quietly sleeping there; how much it has to 
learn ! That is true. But then it has something 
to teach too. 

When a new baby comes into a family, one 
lesson it may teach is the lesson of carefulness. 

(54) 



THE BABY AND ITS LESSONS. 57 

Everybody in the family ought to learn to be 
careful when a new baby comes into it, or else there 
will be harm done. Look at the little girl in our 
picture standing by the cradle. How unhappy she 
looks ! She is pouting, with her finger in her 
mouth, and is even trampling on her poor little 
dolly. She is feeling jealous of the new baby. 
Bridget the nurse, or one of her aunts, has been 
talking to her, and has carelessly told her that the 
baby has come to take her place, and that her 
mamma won't love her any more. In this way 
her little heart has been .filled with jealousy 
towards the dear baby, and she wishes it hadn't 
come. It is very wrong to say such things about 
the new baby to its next oldest brother or sister. 
The baby comes to teach us all the lesson of care- 
fulness at such times. Here are some simple lines 
about a little girl who got over this wrong feeling, 
and learned to love the new baby in spite of what 
Bridget had said. They are called 

" LULU'S COMPLAINT." 

" I'se a poor 'ittle sorrowful baby, 
For Bidget is way down stairs ; 
My titten has scratched my fin'er, 
And dolly won't say her p'ayers. 

" I haint seen my bootiful mamma 
Since ever so long ado ; 
An' I haint her tunninest baby 
No londer, for Bidget says so. 



58 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

" Mamma's dot anoder new baby ; 
Dod dived it — he did — yes'erday. 
And it kies, it kies, oh, so defful, 
I wis' he would tate it away. 

" I don't want no ' sweet 'ittle sister, ' 

I want my dood mamma, I do; 

I want her to tiss me, and tiss me, 

An' tall me her p'ecious Lulu. 

" I dess my dear papa will b'in me 
A 'ittle dood titten, some day, — 
Here's nurse wid mamma's new baby, 
I wis' she would tate it away. 

" Oh, oh, what tunnin' red fin'ers ; 
It sees me, 'ite out of its eyes ; 
I dess we will teep it, and dive it 
Some canny whenever it kies. 

" I dess I will dive it my dolly 
To play wid mos' eve'y day ; 
An' I dess, I dess — say, Bidget, 
Ask Dod not to tate it away." 

Now Lulu would have been saved all this trouble 
if her nurse Bridget had only learned the lesson 
of carefulness, which the baby was sent to teach. 

Another lesson which a new baby may teach is 
the lesson of usefulness. 

Robbie was a nice thoughtful little fellow, about 
five years old. A new baby had been sent into 
Robbie's house. He was talking with his grandma 
about it, not long after, and this was what Robbie 
thought : " Well, now, I suppose I shall have to 
be very good, because we've got this baby; for 



THE BABY AND ITS LESSONS. 59 

mother won't want her to be naughty, and she will 
be if I am." 

Robbie was exactly right. The new baby had 
come to teach him, and every one else in that 
family, to be good. That was a lesson of useful- 
ness. 

And then there is one other lesson which the 
new baby is sent to teach, when it comes into a 
family, and that is the lesson of happiness. 

This follows naturally from the last lesson. 
When I was a little boy at school, I remember this 
line was one of the first I ever learned to read : 
u To be good is to be happy." This is the true 
secret of happiness. — " Mother," said little Minnie, 
" I have learned how to be happy, very happy." 
" Have you, my dear ? "Well, tell me the secret." 
" Why, it's by forgetting myself, and always trying 
to make those around me happy." 

And if, in every family where a new baby comes, 
the lesson of carefulness, the lesson of usefulness, 
and the lesson of happiness are learned, the baby's 
coming will be a blessing. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FIRESIDE LESSON. 

HERE is a pleasant scene. We see a mother 
with her little child on her knee, sitting 
by the fireside on a winter evening. It may be 
about the time of the Christmas holidays, or not 
long after, for we see on the floor the baby's dolly 
is lying on her back ; near by is a toy that looks 
very much like a young elephant ; there is some- 
thing else near this, but it is hard to tell exactly 
what it is. Pussy is sitting before the fender, 
enjoying the warmth of the fire. No doubt she is 
purring loudly, because pleased with her situation ; 
it is an interesting thing about cats, that they 
always purr when they are pleased. 

This is evidently an old-fashioned fireplace, for 
there is a deep recess to it ; and on the sides and 
top of this recess are little square divisions, with 
some figure on each one. These squares are called 
tiles. Tiles are made out of the same kind of fine 
clay from which our dinner-plates, or cups and 
saucers, are made. They are finished like them, 
(60) 



THE FIRESIDE LESSON. 63 

with a smooth, glossy surface, and when used in 
fireplaces they had pictures made on them, con- 
nected with different Bible stories. If you look 
at the tiles in our engraving, you will see the 
marks of these pictures upon them ; but they are 
not plain enough to enable us to tell what the 
pictures are. This mother is pointing with her 
hand to one of these pictures, and talking to her 
little girl about it. These old-fashioned tiles, with 
Bible pictures on them, must have been very nice 
things to have around the sides of a nursery fire- 
place. They would be a great help to a mother 
in teaching her children, and a great blessing to 
the children in enabling them to understand and 
remember what their mother taught. Let me 
give one illustration of the usefulness of the old- 
fashioned tiles. 

The Rev. Dr. Philip Doddridge was a very good 
and useful minister of the gospel. He lived in 
England about a hundred years ago. Besides 
being very useful as a preacher of the gospel, 
while he lived he wrote some books which have 
been very useful since his death. One of his books 
was a commentary on the New Testament. This 
was intended especially to be used in family 
worship, and has been the means of doing much 
good. 

Another of his books was called " Doddridge's 
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." This 



64 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

was intended to show us how to become Christians, 
and a great number of persons have been much 
helped by the use of this book in trying to serve 
God. 

Well, this good man tells us that when he was 
a little boy they had in his home one of these old- 
fashioned fireplaces, with tiles round it, having 
Bible pictures on them. And he says that the 
first thing which led him to try to be a Christian was 
hearing his mother talk one evening, about the 
Bible story connected with the picture on one of 
those tiles. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE BEST LOOKING-GLASS. 

THIS girl with a looking-glass in her hand is 
taking a good look at herself. She has just 
tried on a new hat, with ribbons and feathers on 
it, and very naturally she wants to see how her hat 
looks. 

I have no fault to find with this girl's looking- 
glass. It may be a very good one ; but I wish to 
speak of one that I know is very much better than 
that. The apostle Paul compares the Bible to a 
looking-glass. This is what he means when he 
says, ""We all, with open face beholding as in a 
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord " (2 Cor. 3:18). 

The Bible is the glass here spoken of; and this 
gives us a nice subject to speak about, viz., the 
Bible the best looking-glass. It would be a good 
reason to prove this is true, if we were only to say 
that this is the looking-glass which God made, and 
therefore it must be better than any ever made by 

(67) 



68 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

men. But, without stopping here, there are three 
other good reasons, which prove that the Bible is 
the best looking-glass. 

1. It is so, in the first place, because it shows us 
our faults. 

And this is what no other glass can do. The 
little girl in our picture can look into her glass and 
tell how her hat fits, or how her hair or her face 
looks, but that is all. Looking into that glass will 
not tell her anything about her heart or soul. It 
will not show her what is wrong in her thoughts, 
or feelings, or words, or actions. But the Bible is 
the best looking-glass because it will do this. It 
tells us all about our sins. It shows us clearly 
what the will of God is, and then teaches us that 
everything contrary to God's will is sin. If your 
face is soiled, you can tell it in a moment when you 
look into a mirror. But when we read the Bible 
carefully we are looking into God's mirror. This 
will show us all our faults. And this is a good reason 
fbr saying that the Bible is the best looking-glass. 

2. It is so, in the second place, because it shoivs 
us how to get rid of our faults. 

None of the looking-glasses that men make can 
do this. If the little girl in our picture should 
have a black spot on her face, the glass will show 
it to her the moment she looks into it. But that is 
all the glass will do. It will not whisper to her 
anything about the water, and the soap, and the 



THE BEST LOOKING-GLASS. 69 

towel, by the help of which the spot may be re- 
moved. 

But it is different with God's looking-glass, the 
Bible. This not only shows us what our faults 
are ; it not only shows us the spots of sin on our 
souls, but it tells us also of the fountain that has 
been opened to take our sins away. It bids us to 
wash in that fountain and be clean. It tells of the 
blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin. 
And when we think of this, we must admit that it 
is a good reason why the Bible is the best looking- 
glass. It not only shows us what our faults are, 
but it shows us also how to get rid of them. 

3. And then there is another reason why the 
Bible is the best looking-glass ; it is so because it 
tells us our fortunes. 

We have heard of men called magicians. Some- 
times these men have pretended that they could 
make wonderful mirrors, which had the power, 
when people looked in them, of telling what would 
happen to them next year, or in other years to 
come. But these men were only cheating when 
they pretended to do this. The Bible tells us that 
u we know not Avhat shall be on the morrow." No 
one knows this but God. And when I speak of 
the Bible telling our fortunes, I do not mean that 
it will tell us whether we are going to be sick or 
well, rich or poor, next year. But I mean it will 
tell us plainly that if we learn really to love and 



70 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

serve God, this will make us happy ; but that if 
we neglect to do this, we never can be really happy, 
either in this world or in the world to come. 

While Mr. Moody was preaching at one of the 
country towns in England, a young girl, connected 
with a gypsy camp in the neighborhood, attended 
some of the meetings and was converted. Soon 
after this, some gay young men went to the camp 
of the gypsies to have some sport. 

They applied to this young girl to know if she 
could tell them their fortunes. She said she could, 
and invited them to her tent. Picking up a New 
Testament, she said, without letting them know 
what it was, " Here is the best book in the world 
for telling people's fortunes." And then she read 
to those young men the last verse in the third 
chapter of John's gospel : "He that believeth on 
the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth 
not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God 
abideth on him." 

The Bible is the best looking-glass, because it 
shows us our faults, it shows us how to gel rid of 
them, and it tells us our fortunes. " Whoso looketh 
into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth 
therein . . . this man shall be blessed in his deed" 
(James 1 : 25). 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE FARM-YARD SKETCH. 

~YYT"HAT a pretty scene this picture sets before 
VV us ! And such must have been the 
thought of some good-natured person, who has 
written the following simple lines about it. They 
are taken from an English periodical called " Lit- 
tle Folks." 

" The day is cold, the snow falls fast, 
And in the fields the timid sheep 
Are glad of any hedge, or shade, 
Beneath which they may creep. 

"Thrice happy they whose lot is cast 
With master sensible and kind, 
Who doth provide them shelter warm 
From snow and biting wind. 

" See Tom, the farmer's lad, come out, 

And bring with him the welcome meal , 
He knows it is their dinner time, 
And hungry they must feel. 

" Contentedly enough they take 

The turnips from his well-known hand; 
And Tom, with pride, esteems his sheep 
The best in all the land. 

(73) 



74 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

" ' Be kind to all/ the farmer says ; 
And so his sheep are tended well ; 
Besides, he knows that sheep well kept 
For double prices sell." 

It is quite true, as the last of these verses says, 
that those who are kind to their sheep, and feed 
and keep them well, will get more money for them. 
But there are two other reasons, and better than 
this, why we should be kind to the sheep. 

1 . One of these reasons is, because of what we 
owe them. 

Think how much of our clothing we owe to the 
sheep. If there were no sheep we should have no 
wool. And what should we do without wool? 
How large a part of our clothing is made out of 
wool ! Think of the stockings, and the dresses, 
and the shawls, and the coats, and the caps, and 
the muffs, and comfortables, and lots of other 
things that are made out of wool ! We should be 
badly off if we had to give up all these things. 
It is easy enough to make them when w T e have the 
wool. Yet we never could make the wool. But 
the sheep make wool out of grass. They eat the 
grass; then they grow and the wool grows on 
them, and we cut it off and make all sorts of nice 
woolen things. And when we feel how warm and 
comfortable these things make us, we should be 
kind towards the sheep. 

And then think how much of our food we owe 



THE FARM-YARD SKETCH. 75 

to the sheep ! Mutton and lamb are among the 
most useful and nourishing articles of food that we 
have on our tables. And these we owe to the 
sheep and the lambs. If we had nothing but 
grass to eat we should starve. But God sends the 
sheep and the lambs to eat grass. Then it is 
turned into nice, tender mutton and lamb. These 
we can eat, and eating them makes us hearty and 
strong. And so, when we remember how much 
we owe the sheep for our clothing and for our food, 
we should always treat them kindly. 

2. But there is another reason why we should 
treat the sheep and lambs with kindness, and that 
is, because of what they teach us. 

When the prophet Isaiah was speaking of Christ, 
our blessed Saviour, and of the patience and meek- 
ness with which he bore his dreadful sufferings for 
us, he compared him to a sheep and a lamb. He 
said, " He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet 
he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb 
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers 
is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth " (Isa. 53 : 7). 
And so, when we look on a sheep or a lamb in its 
patience and gentleness, it should lead us to think 
of Jesus and to try to be like him. And this is what 
he means when he says himself, " Learn of me ; 
for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11 : 
29) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK AMONG THE INDIANS. 

HERE we have a picture of a company of 
twelve Indian children. They represent 
the Qoapaws and the Modoc tribes. They belong 
to one of the Sunday-schools visited and aided by a 
missionary of the American Sunday-School Union. 
Some years ago these Indians were brought from 
the lava beds of the West, and settled in the 
Indian Territory. 

This company of young Indians, as delegates 
from the Modoc tribe, attended a meeting of the 
Kansas State Sunday-school Convention. During 
the meetings of the Convention they occupied a 
place on the platform. There they sang together 
the hymn, " Who will be the next to follow 
Jesus," and also the " Sweet By and By." When 
requested to do so, they repeated in concert, in 
good, clear English, that sweetest of all texts, 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

(76) 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK AMONG THE INDIANS. 79 

Two of these Indian scholars have become 
Christians, and are trying to love and serve Jesus. 
They all spell and read very nicely in English. 
They are very attentive in school, and try to 
understand what is taught them, and they have 
good memories, so that the lessons which they 
learn are not forgotten. In illustration of this, 
the following incident is mentioned. Some time 
ago one of our missionaries visited the Indian 
mission, and spent a night there. At the usual 
evening service he made an address to the scholars. 
In the course of his address he asked them to 
repeat after him the text, " Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for 
his friends." It was ten months after this before 
he visited the mission again. Then he asked the 
scholars what the text was which he had taught 
them on his former visit, and they repeated it to 
him. He also asked them what illustration of the 
meaning of that text he had given them, and they 
told him what it was. Now I think there are very 
few of our eastern scholars who could do as well 
as this. I am very sure that if I should make an 
address to a school, and ten months afterwards 
should find the scholars able to give a good 
account of that address, I should feel very much 
encouraged. 

The American Sunday-School Union is one of 
the best agencies to go among these Indians 



80 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

with the hope of doing thero good. Look at our 
present picture of the Indian scholars taught and 
trained in Bible schools, and in their bright intel- 
ligent looks, and the neat style of their dress, you 
will have good evidence of the blessed influence 
which the Sunday-school is exerting on these 
people. 

Our missionary, Mr. Cassell, sends a letter from 
a half-breed Indian who never went to school in 
his life. He taught himself to read and write by 
printing words from books, and then copying 
anything that he met with. He has taken the 
warmest interest in the Union Sunday-school 
established in his neighborhood, as his letter shows. 

Here is an extract from his letter, without 
altering the spelling or the grammar. 

Cane Creek, Creek Nation 

feb. 23d, 18—. 
Mr. John Cassell, Dear Sir 

... I have received t 1 Books all 
right and we has commenced our school on the 
20th of this month. . . . We have made a good 
start with our school, we has a large number of 
comers to our school, and still increasing every 
Sunday, I cant helpe but saying that we are Goin 
to have a very Good Times of our School, . . . 
every one seems to take an intrust, mens and 
woman Boys and Girls all is at one mind about 
tending our Sunday School, So I am more than 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK AMONG THE INDIANS. 81 

happy to think of the time you was here with ns 
on Cane Creek. 

please write just as soon as you can . . . 

yours Dear Friend Isaac A. Smith. 

Certainly this letter does great credit to our 
friend Smith. I am sure that every reader will 
unite with me in the prayer — "God bless Isaac 
A. Smith, and the Sunday-school which he 
attends!" 



CHAPTER XIV. 



MISSIONARY RAFTS. 



THIS is an interesting picture. It carries our 
thoughts a long way off. Abyssinia, the 
country to which it refers, is in Africa, south of 
Egypt, lying between the river Nile and the Red 
Sea. It is a mountainous country, and has numer- 
ous large rivers running through it. They have 
no bridges over their rivers. They use rafts on 
which to cross them. And sometimes they make 
an awkward sort of a boat, out of the skin of an 
ox. It looks' more like a tub than a boat. They 
will put a man in one of these skin boats, and 
then some one has to get into the water and 
swim behind the boat, so as to push it along. 
We should call this a very awkward way of 
crossing a river. 

In our picture we see some of the native Abys- 
sinians helping a missionary over the river on one 
of their rafts. That was a good thing to do. If 
we were there we should be glad to help the mis- 
sionary in that way or any other that was in our 

(82) 



MISSIONARY RAFTS. 85 

power. But here we are, not in Abyssinia, but in 
our own Christian homes in America. And what 
can we do to help the missionaries ? Trying to 
answer this question in the way that our picture 
suggests, we may speak of two kinds of rafts that 
we may build that will be a real help to the mis- 
siouaries, not only in Abyssinia, but in other places, 
too. The missionaries of the American Sunday- 
School Union in our own country, the missionaries 
in China, in India, in Africa, and in the islands of 
the sea, may all be helped in their work by the 
rafts here referred to. 

1. One of these rafts is the praying raft, 

Jesus taught us in our daily prayers to say, 
" Thy kingdom come." If we understand this 
prayer, and offer it in the right way, we may make 
it a raft that will help every missionary in the 
world over the deep waters of any trouble that he 
may have to meet. 

A native African, who was once a slave but now 
is free, was questioned by the minister whose 
church he was going to join, about this part of the 
Lord's Prayer. 

" What do you mean," asked the minister, " when 
you say, ' Thy kingdom come ' ? " 

" I don't mean, massa, dat God's kingdom may 
come in de world, or in de sky — cause God is king 
dar now ; but I mean dat his kingdom may come 
in our hearts." 



86 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

" And what do you mean by God's kingdom 
coming in our hearts ? " 

" I mean, massa, dat God by his grace may rule 
in my heart, and in de hearts of all men." 

Wishing to find out whether he understood just 
what these words meant, the minister asked, " What 
do you mean by God ruling by his grace in our 
hearts?" 

" I mean, massa, dat by the blessed Spirit he 
may make me, and all men, what he wants us to 
be." This was right. And if we use the prayer 
in this way, we shall be helping the missionaries 
everywhere by this praying raft. 

2. But there is another way in which we may 
help them, and that is by the giving raft. 

In the 31st verse of the 68th Psalm David says 
that " Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands 
unto God." This country was in the same part of* 
Africa with Abyssinia. And in the 30th verse we 
are told that this will be when God's people learn 
to give as they ought to do. If Christians, young 
and old, would learn to give to God one-tenth of 
all they have, which is a Bible rule, what a 
splendid raft would be furnished to help the mis- 
sionaries everywhere ! 

A Bag of Farthings. — While they were taking 
the annual collection at a Sunday-school in Eng- 
land, a boy only seven years old brought a bag 
and put it on the plate. The bag was heavy. 



MISSIONARY RAFTS. 87 

When opened it was found to contain two hundred 
and eighty-five farih ings. He had not fou nd them : 
he had not begged them : he had earned them by 
running errands for his mother. She allowed him 
to keep all the farthings given in change. And 
instead of spending them in cakes or candies for 
himself, he kept them for the missionary cause. 

Let us all try our hands at these two rafts — the 
praying raft and the giving raft — and see how 
much we can do to help the missionaries. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE SHAH OF PERSIA AND HIS OFFICERS. 

THE word shah means king. The person who 
stands foremost in our picture is this shah 
or king. Those around him are his attendants or 
officers. The picture now before us was copied 
from a photograph, which was taken of the shah 
and his friends during a visit which he made to 
England and other parts of Europe some years ago. 

In speaking about this picture there are two 
things we may do : one is to take a peep at Persia ; 
the other is to tell a story of the shah. 

1. Well, then we may begin with taking a peep 
at Persia. 

I suppose we all know enough about geography 
to remember that Persia is an important country 
that lies in the western part of Asia, between the 
Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Its history 
runs a long way back. Cyrus, who is spoken of 
in history as " the great and good," and who is 
mentioned in the Bible as having given the Jews 
permission to return to their own country and 
(88) 



THE SHAH OF PERSIA AND HIS OFFICERS. 91 

rebuild Jerusalem after their seventy years' cap- 
tivity, was the shah or king of Persia in those 
days. 

The Persians have always been a very learned 
people. A large part of the rich men among 
them spend their time chiefly in studying lan- 
guages, history, astronomy, and other branches of 
learning. 

The religion of the Persians is mainly Moham- 
medan. The Koran is their Bible, and Mohammed 
their one prophet or teacher. But there are Chris- 
tian missionaries laboring in different parts of this 
country, and we may hope that the day is not far 
off when the Persians will give up their Koran for 
our Bible, and when they will worship Jesus as the 
only true prophet and teacher sent from God. 

The government of Persia is what we call a 
despotic government. This means a government 
where the king or chief ruler can do whatever he 
pleases. There is no law in Persia to bind the 
shah or king. He can take away the property of 
any of the people when he chooses to do so ; and 
not only their property, but their lives. No one's 
life is safe there. Whether it be the highest ruler 
or the poorest beggar in the land, the shah can 
order his head to be taken off whenever he wishes 
to do so. And there is nothing to hinder him 
from doing it. The people have nothing to do 
but submit to the will of the king. 



92 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

This is not a very pleasing peep at Persia, but 
it may make us feel thankful that we do not live 
in such a country. 

2. And now we may take another look at the 
picture, and then be ready for the story about the 
shah. 

We are indebted to that excellent periodical, The 
British Workman, both for this picture of the shah 
and the story about him. 

When the shah came to London, the good Queen 
Victoria invited him to her palace at Windsor. 
During his visit there he wished to have a photo- 
graph taken of himself and his attendants. He 
sent a messenger one Saturday into London, to 
engage Messrs. Elliott and Fry, who were first-rate 
photographers, to come out to Windsor the next 
day, which was Sunday, and make a picture of 
himself and his attendants. Those artists were 
good, faithful, Christian men. They believed that 
God required them not to work on the Sabbath day ; 
but to keep it holy. They told the shah's messenger 
how they felt about it. They said they were very 
sorry that they could not comply with his request ; 
but their religion forbade them to work on that 
day, and they could not do it. The messenger 
said the shah would be very angry if they did not 
go, and would probably get some one else to do 
the work for him. " Not for all the shah's jewels," 
said those faithful men, " could we consent to break 



THE SHAH OF PERSIA AXD HIS OFFICERS. 9S 

the Sabbath day." This was very noble conduct 
on the part of these men. And when the shah 
heard of it, and understood that it was only on 
account of their faithfulness to their religion that 
they declined to go on Sunday, instead of getting 
angry with them he said, " They have done right. 
I think the better of them for it. No one else 
shall take my picture. Tell them to come the next 
day." So they went and took the photograph, of 
which this picture is a copy. 

There are two things to admire in this story. 
One is, the faithfulness of those Christian men in 
being willing to run the risk of suffering loss rather 
than to break the Sabbath day. The other is, the 
good sense of the shah in not getting angry when 
he found men who were determined to obey the 
King of heaven rather than the king of Persia. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE LITTLE MISSIONARY ; OR LEARNING TO 
DO GOOD. 

THIS little girl has on her arm a basket filled 
with good things, which she is going to take 
to a poor family in their neighborhood. She has a 
good, pious mother, who is trying to get her into 
the habit of making herself useful, or of being a 
home missionary. The dear child herself is trying 
to be a Christian, and so she is always ready to go 
where her mother wishes to send her. It is always 
pleasant to see young persons getting into the habit 
of being useful. 

I wish to speak of four reasons why all persons, 
whether young or old, should get into the habit of 
doing good, or of making themselves useful. 

1. And the first reason why we should do this 
is because it is an easy thing. 

There are some things we never can do till we 

grow up to be men and women. And even when 

we are grown up there are some things that we 

cannot do unless we have a great deal of money. 

(94) 



THE LITTLE MISSIONARY. 97 

But it is not necessary to wait till we grow up, or 
till we get rich, in order to make ourselves useful 
and to be doing good. 

A Sunday-school teacher had a class of boys. 
He was trying to teach them this very lesson. 
" Boys," said he, " just try for one week how much 
good you can do. Keep your eyes open, and your 
hands ready, and come back next Sunday and tell 
me what you have done." They agreed. Next 
Sunday they were all in their places looking bright 
and happy, and each of them had something to 
tell. "Johnny," asked the teacher, "what did 
you do ? " " Why, my mother is a washer-woman. 
The pump from which she gets her water is a good 
way off. Before going to school in the morning I 
brought her a tubful of water, and she said that 
was a great help to her." "And, Willie, what did 
you do ? " " There is a poor old woman nearly 
blind living up the alley near our house. I asked 
her if I should come in and read her a chapter in 
the Bible every day. She thanked me, and said 
that would be the greatest comfort she could have." 
" And what did you do, Charley ? " "I was going 
down the street one day with my eyes open and my 
hands ready, looking for something to do. A gen- 
tleman asked me to hold his horse while he went 
into a store. When he came out he gave me a 
quarter of a dollar, and I have brought it to put in 
the missionary box." 
7 



98 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

All the boys had been doing good in some way. 
They found it was, as their teacher had told them, 
an easy thing to make themselves useful. 

2. Another reason why we should try to do good 
is because it is an honorable thing. 

Our blessed Lord, when he was on earth, spent 
his time in going "about doing good." And he 
was the most honorable person who ever trod this 
earth. And if we follow his example in trying to 
do good, and in making ourselves useful, we shall 
share in the honor that belongs to him. He said to 
his disciples, "As my Father hath sent me, even so 
send I you." He was sent to do good, and he 
sends his people for the same purpose. Learning 
to do good will make us like Jesus, and this is the 
greatest honor we can have. 

When kings and emperors wish to put honor on 
those who have served them faithfully, they give 
them gold medals or other ornaments to wear. 
And those who get these marks of the king's 
favor are very proud of them. They think it a 
great honor to wear them. But this is only what 
the Bible calls " the honor that cometh from man." 
These marks of honor may be lost. We must 
leave them behind us when we die. But if we get 
to be like Jesus, we have an honor that none can 
take away from us. And when we die and go to 
heaven we shall take it with us. This is an honor 
that will last forever. Surely then we should try 



THE LITTLE MLSSLONARY. 99 

to do all the good we can, because this is an honor- 
able thing. 

3. The third reason why we should try to do 
good is, because it is a pleasant thing. 

It is pleasant to God. He loves to have us do 
all the good we can. The apostle Paul compares 
doing good to a sacrifice offered to God, and then 
says, that " with such sacrifices God is well pleased " 
(Heb. 13 : 16). And it is a strong motive to lead 
us to do good when we know that it pleases God. 
But it is pleasant to men as well as to God. If we 
give bread to the hungry, or water to the thirsty, 
or clothing to the naked, or fuel to warm those who 
are suffering from cold, and we see the tears of 
gratitude come into their eyes, or feel the warm 
pressure of their hands, or hear the earnest words 
in which they breathe out the prayer, " God bless 
you," Ave know how pleasant our little gifts have 
been to them. And we cannot know that without 
feeling that it is pleasant to us. There is no greater 
joy or pleasure in the world than that which 
springs from doing good. We ought to do it, then, 
because it is a pleasant thing. 

4. And then there is another reason why we 
ought to form the habit of doing good, and that is 
because it is a profitable thing. 

This must not be our only motive, or our chief 
motive, in making ourselves useful. Our Saviour 
tells us, " Do good . . . hoping for nothing 



100 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

again " (Luke 6 : 35). This means we must not 
expect those whom we help to pay us back. But 
we may be sure that God will attend to this. 
Jesus himself has said, " Whosoever shall give to 
drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold 
water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say 
unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" 
(Matt. 10 : 42). This makes the profit certain. 
And if it is an easy thing, an honorable thing, a 
pleasant thing, and a profitable thing to do good, 
we should certainly try to do all the good we can. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE JOUENEY OF LIFE. THE START. 

"TTT'E have four beautiful pictures of" The Jour- 
» » ney of Life." These pictures represent 
four different stages of our life on earth. Here we 
have the first of the four. We call this " The 
Start." Take a good look at it, for it is a very 
pretty picture. 

Here we see a youth just setting off on the 
journey of which we are speaking. A smooth 
path lies before him, with flowers blooming in it. 
On the right hand is a beautiful lake. A fountain 
of water is playing there. Two swans are sailing 
gracefully over the smooth surface of the lake, and 
little sail-boats are making their way from 
point to point. In the distance we see the tall, 
dark mountains lifting their giant forms towards 
heaven. Clouds of mist are wrapping the moun- 
tains round. A church at the foot of the moun- 
tains is silently pointing towards heaven with its 
graceful spire, while, to crown the glory of the 
landscape, the rainbow is seen stretching its form 

(103) 



104 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

of matchless beauty over all. How bright and 
cheering everything looks in this picture ! This is 
just the way in which the journey of life appears 
to most young persons as they are about to make 
" the start " in that journey. 

And here I wish to speak of two things that we 
must have if we hope to be successful in making 
"the journey of life." 

1. In the first place we must have a guide. 

This is absolutely necessary when we are making 
a journey over a road which we have never trav- 
eled before, and about which we know nothing ; 
and this is just our condition when we begin to 
make " the journey of life." Above everything 
else we need a guide. And God offers himself to 
supply this need when he proposes this question 
to each of us : " Wilt thou not from this time cry 
unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my 
youth ? " (Jer. 3 : 4.) God knows every step of 
this journey. If we take him for our guide, and 
follow his directions, we shall be making this start 
in the right way, and the journey will be a success ; 
but if we start without a guide, we shall be sure 
to lose our way. 

In the way of illustration here, let me refer to 
a little incident that occurred once while I was 
traveling in Switzerland. My companion and I 
were at Lauterbrunnen, and had made our arrange- 
ments to start the next day and make the journey 



THE JOURNEY OF LIFE.— THE START 105 

over the Wengern Alp on foot. We engaged a 
guide to go with us and show us the way. There 
was an English gentleman stopping at the same 
inn. He was going to make the same journey ; 
but he thought the guides asked too much money 
for their services, so lie concluded to go without a 
guide. He said he felt sure he could find the way 
himself. The next morning he took an early start, 
and went off all alone. After breakfast we set 
oif to climb the mountain. When we got about 
half way up, in a very wild part of the way, our 
guide stopped, and, pointing to a person we could 
see far off from the road, said to us, " Yonder is the 
gentleman who refused to take a guide. He has 
lost his way. He never can get out of the moun- 
tains in that direction. Unless he comes back he 
must surely perish." Then he climbed up on 
a high point of the mountain's side, and, putting 
his hands to his mouth, he shouted out as loud 
as he could, " Come back ! come back ! " The 
man heard him. He turned back, and was saved, 
and we went on our way. Here we see the 
danger of traveling an unknown way without a 
guide. In this journey of life we are sure to lose 
our way if we start without a guide; and God, 
our Saviour, is the only one who can guide 
us safely. In making this start we must have a 
guide. 

2. But then in starting on the journey of life 



106 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

there is another thing we need besides a guide, and 
that is a supply. 

This supply must include many things, but the 
most important will be the needful provisions. In 
a long journey this is what no earthly guide can 
engage to secure ; but our heavenly Guide can and 
will do this. He says to every one who takes him 
as his guide, " Bread shall be given him ; his 
waters shall be sure" (Isa. 33 : 16). But other 
things are needed on a long journey besides bread 
and water, and these will be provided too. Hence 
the apostle Paul says, "My God shall supply 
all your need according to his riches in glory 
by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4: 19). This makes 
everything sure. There is nothing left for us to 
fear if w T e take Jesus for our friend. We shall 
have a guide that will never fail us, and a supply 
that will be always sure. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. — THE OUTFIT. 

THIS youth has started on his journey over the 
mountains that lie before him. We may 
hope that he has secured the guide and the supply 
spoken of in our last chapter. 

What we have here to say may very well be put 
under such a heading as the outfit. 

Now the traveler's outfit for a long journey 
must include several important things. The one 
that I prefer to speak about is his staff. For one 
who is starting on a journey over the mountains, 
as the youth in our picture is doing, it is very de- 
sirable that he should be furnished with a good 
staff. 

This the youth in our picture seems to have. 
And in starting on "the journey of life" it is of 
the very first importance that we should each have 
a good staff. When King David was going 
through the most trying part of " the journey of 
life" he looked up to God, and said, "Thy rod 
and thy staff, they ccmfort me." The word of 

(109) 



110 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

God was what made the staff that David used in 
his journey. And this is the staff that we must 
take if we would make a successful journey. 

And if you ask me to mention one of the best 
passages of God's word to be taken as the staff for 
" the journey of life," let me say that I know of 
none better than Isaiah 41 : 10. Here God says 
to every one who wishes to take him as guide, 
"Fear thou not ; for I am with thee: be not dis- 
mayed ; for I am thy God ; I will strengthen thee ; 
yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with 
the right hand of my righteousness." This is a very 
precious promise. The four short words in the 
middle of it — " I will help thee " — make the very 
best staff we can have for " the journey of life." 
I have used this staff for more than fifty years, and 
have never found it to fail. If you take this staff 
with you, you may lean your whole weight upon 
it, and it will never break nor bend nor give way 
beneath you. When Jesus, our omnipotent 
Saviour, says to each of us, " I will help thee," 
what more can we need? 

The Usefulness of this Staff Illustrated. — Let me 
give you from my own experience one little 
incident to show the help and comfort to be found 
in the use of this staff. 

Some years ago I noticed one spring that my 
next monthly children's service would be on the 
afternoon of Easter Sunday. To be in harmony 



THE JOURXEY OF LIFE.— THE OUTFIT. Ill 

with the service of that interesting day, it would 
be desirable for me to have a sermon on the subject 
of the resurrection. So I went to my study one 
Monday evening to try to lay out my children's 
sermon for the coming Easter Sunday. I selected 
as the text for that occasion the words of our 
Saviour, " I am the resurrection." I wrote these 
words on a sheet of paper, and then tried to think 
out and put down the principal points to be dwelt 
upon in the sermon ; but I could not think of any- 
thing to say. I tried and tried again, but without 
success. Then I walked up and down my study, 
and tried as hard as I could to get the subject into 
proper shape ; but in vain. Then I kneeled down 
and prayed to God for the help and guidance that 
I needed. I pleaded this sweet promise : " I will 
help thee." I told the Lord how much I needed 
his help then. I thanked him for the many occa- 
sions on which he had helped me before, and en- 
treated him to help me now once more. I spent 
the whole evening in this way, thinking and walk- 
ing and praying, but I did not seem to make any 
progress. Bed-time came ; and, weary with my 
long effort, I resolved to go and get some rest. In 
doing so I said to myself, " Well, the help I need 
has not come yet, but I am sure it will come; for 
God's promise never fails, and * the Scripture can- 
not be broken.' " 

I had early service at my church the next morn- 



112 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

ing. As I was walking up Chestnut Street on my 
way there, just as I was going past Mr. Baldwin's 
beautiful conservatory, next door to the American 
Sunday-School Union, I said to myself, "Well, 
how about my children's sermon ? " And then all 
in a moment it came, just as quick as a flash, and 
a nice, suitable outline for the sermon was sug- 
gested to my mind. It made me feel very happy ; 
I went on my way rejoicing. After the service at 
church was over I went to my study, and put down 
the outline of the sermon that had been given me ; 
and then I went to work, and wrote it all out, with 
great interest and pleasure. 

Now, if the angel Gabriel had appeared to me 
that morning, and had handed me a note, saying, 
as he did so, " Here is the outline of your next 
children's sermon, which the Lord has sent you/' 
I should have known very well where that sermon 
came from. I saw no angel, received no note ; but 
I am just as certain that that sermon came from 
heaven as if the angel had appeared. 

And this is only one instance, out of many that 
I could give, in which the staff of God's promise 
has been a help and comfort to me in time of need. 
And if you, my young friends, will take this staff 
and lean upon it, you will find it just what you 
need in " the journey of life." You will have a 
good outfit if you take this staff with you. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. THE STRUGGLE. 

THE youth in our picture is having a hard 
time. His path is rough and rocky. The 
mountain torrents are rushing by him. The storm 
is bursting and the lightning flashing around him. 
And now the time has come for him to toil on and 
toil up in his difficult journey. He has to make 
"the struggle" on which the final success of his 
journey must depend. And as we go on in " the 
journey of life " before us we must all pass through 
just such an experience. The time will come when, 
like this youth, we must struggle manfully if we 
hope to get well through. And there are three 
things necessary for us to have if we would be suc- 
cessful in making this struggle. 

1. In the first place we must have confidence. 

I do not mean confidence in ourselves, but con- 
fidence in our Guide — our God. We see how Job 
exercised this confidence in the darkest hour of his 
trouble, when he looked up to the God who was 
afflicting him, and said, " Though he slay me, yet 

8 (115) 



116 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

will I trust in him" (Job 13 : 15). And David 
was showing the same confidence when he said, " I 
will fear no evil : for thou art with me " (Ps. 23 : 4). 

Here is an illustration of the way in which this 
confidence helps those who are engaged in this 
struggle : 

A pious German minister one day found his poor 
mother in great distress about a dollar which she 
needed very much, but did not know how to get. 
He was not able at that time to give her the needed 
dollar. He lifted up his heart in silent prayer to 
God that he would send his mother the dollar. 
Then he turned up an hour-glass which stood by 
his mother and said, " I feel confident that if this 
dollar is really needed it will be on your table be- 
fore this hour-glass runs out. If it is not found 
here, God will show you that it was not necessary, 
and will help you to do without it." But before 
the hour-glass was half run out there was a knock 
at the door. On opening it, a person was standing 
there who had come several miles to bring the old 
lady a dollar which was owing to her. And so the 
minister's confidence was rewarded by securing to 
his mother the help that she needed. And thus 
his confidence aided them in the struggle of life. 

2. The second thing needed in our struggle is 
courage. 

When the apostle was in the midst of his life 
journey he said one day that he knew very well 



THE JOURNEY OF LIFE.— THE STRUGGLE. 117 

that in " every place " to which he was going 
" bonds and afflictions n awaited him. This would 
have made many persons feel sad and fearful ; but 
it had no such effect on the great apostle. He had 
true courage. This led him to say, " But none of 
these things move me, neither count I my life dear 
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with 
joy" (Acts 20 : 24). Here we see the apostle's 
courage helping him on in his struggle. 

What great courage Daniel's three friends had ! 
The king of Babylon had set up his golden image, 
and threatened to cast into the burning fiery fur- 
nace any persous who refused to fall down and 
worship it ; but those brave men would not do it. 
They were brought before the king. He told them 
they must fall down and worship his image, or else 
they would be cast into the furnace. They told 
him that the God whom they worshipped could 
save them from being burnt by the fire of that fur- 
nace if he saw fit to do so ; but whether he should 
do so or not, they would not worship that image. 
You all know what the end of that story was. 
How truly the courage of those brave men helped 
them in their great struggle ! 

Noble Courage. — A poor boy was attending 
school one day, with a large patch on one of the 
knees of his trowsers. One of his school-mates 
made fun of him for this, and called him " Old 
Patch." " Why don't you fight him ? " cried one 



118 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

of the boys. " I'd give it to him if he called me 
so." " Oh," said the boy, " you don't suppose I'm 
ashamed of my patch, do you ? For my part I'm 
thankful for a good mother to keep me out of 
rags. Tm proud of my patch for her sake." 
This was noble. That boy had the courage that 
would make him successful in the struggles of life. 
We must have courage in our struggle if" we hope 
to come out right. 

3. And then the third thing that we need in this 
struggle is perseverance. 

Our Saviour said, " He that endureth to the end 
shall be saved." Perseverance in anything means 
enduring, or keeping on with it, till we get through. 
And this is absolutely necessary in the struggle we 
have to keep up in " the journey of life." 

Tlie Perseverance of an Ant. — A great general 
used to tell his friends an anecdote of his early 
life. " I once," said he, " was forced to take shel- 
ter from my enemies in a ruined building, where I 
sat alone for many hours. Trying to divert my 
mind from my misfortunes, I fixed my eyes on an 
ant that was carrying a grain of wheat bigger than 
itself up a high wall. I counted the efforts it 
made to accomplish its object. The grain of wheat 
fell to the ground sixty-nine times ; but the little 
insect persevered, and the seventieth time it suc- 
ceeded and reached the top of the wall. This sight 
gave me courage at that time, when I greatly 



THE JOURNEY OF LIFE.— THE STRUGGLE. 119 

Deeded it, and I never forgot the lesson it taught 
me." 

And this is a lesson we all need to learn as we 
go on with the "journey of life." And if we 
only have the confidence, the courage, and the per- 
severance, of which we have now spoken, as we go 
on with "the journey of life," our "struggle" 
will be sure to end in success. Let us all be sure 
to get these three things, and then it will be well 
with us. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. — THE VICTORY. 

THIS is the last stage in this important journey. 
We have spoken about "the start," "the 
outfit," " the struggle." What remains for us to 
notice is " the victory." 

Here, in the picture before us, we see the trav- 
eler in the last stage of his journey. " The strug- 
gle" is over, and he is quietly waiting for the 
reward of his victory. We see the ocean of 
eternity calmly spread out before him, and far off 
in the distance the domes and spires of the heavenly 
city are seen standing clearly out to view. The 
successful traveler is waiting now till the sum- 
mons comes for him to launch out on that ocean 
and reach the golden city. 

And this is just the position which the apostle 
Paul was occupying when, in speaking of himself, 
he used those well-known words, " I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give me " (2 Tim. 4 : 7, 8). 

(120) 



THE JOURNEY OF LIFE.— THE VICTORY. 123 

Like the old man in our picture, Paul had nearly 
reached the end of his journey, and the joy which 
he then felt arose from two sources. One of these 
was the memory of the past; the other was the hope 
of the future. And every one who pursues "the 
journey of life " to the same victorious end, will 
be able to take up the apostle's words and share 
the joy which he felt. 

1. The memory of the past will be full of joy to 
all such persons. This joy will be found in recol- 
lecting what the grace of God has done for us. 
It was this grace which enabled us to take " the 
start " rightly in this journey ; it was this grace 
which gave us what we needed for " the outfit ; " 
and it was to this grace we were indebted for all 
the help required in keeping up " the struggle " 
through which we have passed. Many a time we 
should have failed in this struggle and been over- 
come if it had not been for the help of this 
grace. This grace has never failed. It has always 
been sufficient for us. And, like David, we shall 
be able to say at the close of our journey, Surely 
goodness and mercy have followed us all the days 
of our life. And there will be great joy in such 
a memory as this. Let us seek that grace con- 
tinually as Ave go on in our journey, and it will 
surely bring us to just such a victory as the old 
man in our picture is rejoicing in, as he sits down 
at the close of his journey, and finds his heart 



124 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

filled with joy in the memory of the past and hope 
for the future. 

2. But then the words of the apostle above- 
quoted show that the joy he was feeling had to do 
with the hope of the future, as well as the memory 
of the past. He says, " Henceforth there is laid 
up for me a crown of righteousness." 

Men consider an earthly crown as the highest 
honor and the greatest blessing that can be had in 
this world, and yet those who gain this crown 
seldom find in it the happiness which they ex- 
pected. They find the old saying true, " Uneasy 
lies the head that wears a crown." Cares, anxieties 
and dangers are always connected with an earthly 
crown ; and then soon death comes, and the crown 
has to be laid aside forever. But how different it 
will be with the crown which awaits the victorious 
Christian at the end of " the journey of life ! " 
Paul calls it " a crown of righteousness." It 
is also called in the Bible " a crown of life " 
and "a crown of glory." There will be no 
cares, no dangers, and no troubles connected with 
the wearing of this crown. " Fulness of joy and 
pleasures forevermore" are the only things that 
the wearers of this crown will know. How well 
then the victor in this journey may have joy in the 
hope of the future ! 



CHAPTER XXI. 

LESSONS FROM DOGS. 

~T Y7~HAT a fine-looking dog this is ! See what 
W a good head he has ! Look at his big, 
bushy tail, and his splendid coat of soft, curly 
hair ! It is a real comfort to have a good intel- 
ligent dog ; one that you can safely trust. 

We generally think of dogs as only good for 
hunting or for watching. But there are other 
things for which dogs are useful. And among 
these it may well be said that dogs are sometimes 
good teachers. I do not mean to say that they can 
give us lessons in spelling, or reading, or writing, 
or arithmetic. But there are other things, more 
important than these, in which some dogs are good 
teachers, and about which we may learn valuable 
lessons from them. I mean by this that they set us 
good examples of how we ought to act. There are 
many practical lessons of this kind which the dogs 
teach us. I will only speak now of three of these 
lessons. 

1. And the first of these to which I would refer 
is the lesson of perseverance. 

(127) 



128 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

A farmer had a dog named Rollo. He was 
very intelligent, and seemed to understand all that 
was said to him. One day this farmer had been 
mending the fence between his garden and his 
orchard. When he had finished the work, he left 
his basket of tools in the orchard, and went into 
the barn. Rollo was lying near the barn door. 
His master spoke to him and said, " Rollo, I have 
left my basket of tools in the orchard : go, and 
bring it to me." The dog started in a moment. 
When he reached the place he took hold of the 
handle of the basket with his mouth, but found it 
was too heavy for him to lift. 

Now many a boy or girl on finding this would 
have given the matter up at once, and would have 
gone back and said, " The basket of tools is too 
heavy for me to carry." But Rollo did not do so. 
He evidently belonged to the " Try Company." 
So, as he could not carry the tools altogether, he 
took them one by one, and carried them to his 
master, and laid them down at his feet, till the 
basket was half empty ; then he picked it up and 
took it to his master. 

This dog was setting a good example of the les- 
son of perseverance. Let us learn the lesson he 
taught. Let us follow his example of perseverance, 
and then, by God's help, we shall be sure to 
succeed in everything that is right and good and 
have great peace in our minds. 



LESSONS FROM BOGS. 129 

2. The next thing we may learn from some dogs 
is the lesson of usefulness. 

One of the highest mountains in Switzerland is 
the St. Gothard mountain. Near the top of it is 
a large building called a convent or hospice. A 
number of monks live in this building. A carriage 
road from Switzerland, down into Italy, goes over 
the top of this mountain. This road was much 
traveled before the railway tunnel through the 
mountains was completed. But in the winter, 
when heavy falls of snow take place, travelers 
could not tell how to find the road, and many 
perished in the snow. 

But the monks at this convent keep a number 
of large dogs, known as the St. Bernard dogs. 
After a heavy fall of snow they send these dogs 
out, each one having a parcel of refreshments 
strapped on his back. The dogs seem to under- 
stand their business, and are glad to attend to it. 
They run about over the fields of snow, and keep 
up a loud barking. And when they find some 
poor traveler overcome by cold and hunger, he 
takes the food the dogs bring him and is revived ; 
and then they show him the way to the shelter and 
rest which he will find in that mountain home. 
Those dogs are good missionaries. They teach us 
the lesson of usefulness. 

3. Another good thing that dogs sometimes 
teach us is the lesson of returning good for evil. 

9 



130 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

A gentleman had a dog whose name was Ponto. 
He had been a very useful dog to his master, who 
was very fond of him. But the time had come 
when Ponto was getting old. He was not able to 
do all that he had long been in the habit of doing. 
His master concluded to take him to the river and 
drown him. This was not a kind return to make 
to the dog for the faithful service of his life-time. 
But this was what his master had made up his 
mind to do. So he took Ponto down to the river. 
Then he put him in a boat and rowed out into the 
middle of the river. Here he tied a rope round 
Ponto's neck. A heavy stone was fastened at the 
other end of this rope, so as to sink the poor fellow 
when he was thrown into the river. Then he 
picked him up and pitched him into the water. 
But in doing this he lost his balance, and upset 
the boat, and was thrown into the river himself. 
He could not swim a stroke, and would have been 
drowned if it had not been for Ponto. For it 
happened that the stone fastened to the rope 
round his neck slipped out. This left him free to 
swim about. And when he saw his master strug- 
gling in the water, he took hold of him and brought 
him safe to shore. This touched the man's heart so 
that he took Ponto home again, and had him kindly 
cared for as long as he lived. This was a good 
lesson for a dog to teach. Let us be kind to dogs 
because of the lessons they teach. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE TIGER TRAP. 

IT is very nice to look at a great big tiger like 
this, when we can see it, as we now do, in a 
picture. But it would not be quite so nice to 
meet him out in the jungles where he lives. It is 
very good in our heavenly Father not to let such 
a savage beast as the tiger is roam about in every 
place. If there were tigers in our woods we 
should never care to go into them. But God has 
been pleased to confine this fierce creature to one 
part of the world. The tiger is a native of India. 
He is seldom if ever found anywhere else. And 
it is only in certain parts of India that he is met 
with. His home is in what is called the jungles 
of India. The jungle is a sort of forest in India, 
where the trees and plants grow so close together 
that it is very hard to get through them. And 
these jungles are the places where the tigers love to 
dwell. 

The picture now before us shows one of the 
ways in which the people in India catch the tiger. 

(133) 



134 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

When they merely want to kill them they adopt 
several different plans, of which we cannot speak ; 
but when they wish to catch them alive, they use 
a trap like the one we see in our picture. 

This is a large kind of cage. It is made of 
strong pieces of bamboo cane tightly bound to- 
gether, and fastened in the ground near the tiger's 
den. This cage has a very heavy lid, with hinges 
to it on one side, and on the other a sort of spring 
lock, which fastens it securely when the lid falls 
down. A long rope is fastened to the upper end 
of this lid. The other end of this rope is held by 
a man who is hid away in the upper branches of a 
tree, near by, where he can keep watch upon the 
trap. 

Inside the trap a looking-glass is placed, facing 
the front. A part of a dead animal is laid at the 
bottom of the trap as bait. The tiger smells the 
blood of the dead animal. This draws him to 
the trap. Then he sees his own likeness in the 
glass. He thinks it is another tiger trying to get 
the food which he wants for himself. He springs 
at the glass. The man in the tree pulls the rope. 
The heavy lid of the cage falls down. It is 
fastened by the spring, and the tiger is caught in 
the trap. 

And what may we learn from this ? We may 
learn some useful lessons. Satan is a great hunter. 
He is setting traps all the time for boys and girls, 



THE TIGER TRAP. 135 

and men and women. And this picture of the 
tiger trap shows us how easily we may be caught 
in one of the traps of Satan. There were two 
things in the tiger that led him into this trap. 
And we must watch against these if we wish to 
keep out of Satan's traps. 

1. One thing that led to the tiger's being caught 
in this trap was his selfishness. 

He thought there was another tiger trying to 
get that meat. He wanted it all for himself. He 
was not willing to share it with another. So he 
sprang at the tiger in the glass, and thus he was 
caught. One of Satan's traps, in which multi- 
tudes of souls are caught and lost, is covetousness. 
And nothing leads people into this trap more easily 
than selfishness. Here is an illustration : 

There was once a rich farmer, who had a large 
barn full of wheat, at a time when there was a 
great famine in the country. He was not willing 
to sell his grain at a reasonable price at the begin- 
ning of the famine. He thought that if he kept 
it till all the other grain in his neighborhood had 
been sold, he would get a great deal more money 
for it. He did keep it till all the other wheat 
was gone. Then he asked a very high price for it. 
He opened his barn to sell his hoarded grain. But 
alas ! a little insect had got into the grain and 
spoiled it. It was good for nothing. Thus he 
was caught in Satan's trap by his selfishness. 



136 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

2. Another thing that led this tiger into the 
trap was pride. 

He thought he saw another tiger. He wanted 
to show how much stronger he was than the other 
animal, and how easily he could conquer him. He 
flew at him in his pride, and was caught in the 
trap. And how many persons are caught in 
Satan's trap and ruined by pride. 

This was the trap that Satan himself was caught 
in. He was once an angel in heaven. He was 
tempted by pride. This lost him his place in 
heaven. Adam lost his beautiful home in Para- 
dise in the same way. And Pharaoh king of 
Egypt, and Saul king of Israel, and Nebuchad- 
nezzar king of Babylon, were caught in Satan's 
trap by pride. Then let us watch against pride. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE SAILOR ? S HOME. 

HERE we have a picture of a sailor's home. 
On the right-hand side of the picture we 
see a good, large, pleasant-looking bed. Then 
there is a dog and a cat, that seem very much at 
home ; and then there are the sailor's little children. 
How comfortable and happy they seem as they are 
playing with their boat, which makes them think 
of their dear father, who is far away over the sea. 
But then there is one other thing in this home 
which has more to do with the comfort of it than 
anything else in it. This is the wife of the absent 
sailor and the mother of his dear children. We 
see her in the picture. She is kneeling down, en- 
gaged in earnest praye* for all her loved ones. 

The influence of a praying wife and mother, how 
great it is ! We may speak of three things about 
this influence, of which it is pleasant to think. 

1. The influence of prayer is a far-reaching in- 
fluence. The God to whom we offer our prayer is 
always present in every place all round the world. 
Distance makes no difference to him. Here is a 

(139) 



140 FIVE-ZIINUTE TALKS. 

good illustration of this point of our subject. We 
may call it The Mother's Prayer Answered. 

A Christian widow in England had a son who 
was a soldier in the English army in India. Like 
most soldiers, he was a careless, God-forgetting 
man. The mother and the other children always re- 
membered him in their prayers. They prayed that 
God would have mercy upon him and make him 
a Christian ; and though lie was so far away from 
them and the wide ocean rolled between them, they 
felt sure that God would hear and answer their 
prayers. And sure enough it turned out just so. 
He became serious. He began to read his Bible 
and to pray. He learned to love the Saviour. A 
great change was seen in him. He gave up all his 
evil ways, and became one of the best men in his 
regiment. His companions were very much sur- 
prised at what they saw in him. At last one of 
them asked him what had led to this great change. 
Then he took out of his pocket a letter which he 
had received from his mother, and read to him the 
closing words, which were these : "We are all 
praying for you, Charlie, that you may be a Chris- 
tian." " Those are the words," said he, " that 
have led to this change ; and now, by the help of 
God, I mean to go on as I have begun." Here 
we have an illustration of prayer reaching round 
the world. This shows us how truly its influence 
is far-reaching. 



THE SAILORS HOME. 141 

2. But, in the next place, prayer has a protecting 
influence, as well as one that is far-reaching. 

When Daniel was cast into the lions' den it was 
in answer to his prayer for protection that " God 
sent his angel, and shut the lions' mouths, that they 
should not hurt him." (Daniel 6 : 22.) And so it 
was with his three friends when they were cast into 
the burning, fiery furnace. And we often meet 
with illustrations of the protecting power of prayer. 
Here is one. We may call it u Lord Jesus, help ! " 

A lady in one of our large cities was in the 
habit of going to church in the evening alone. 
Some of her friends told her it was not safe, and 
tried to prevent her from going ; but she was very 
fond of her church, and was not willing to give up 
going. In coming home from church one evening, 
as she was crossing a public square, two robbers 
came up to her. Each presented a pistol to her and 
demanded her watch and money. They thought she 
was entirely alone ; but there was one with her 
whom they knew not. As she had no earthly arm 
to protect her, she instantly fell on her knees before 
them, and lifting up her hands, exclaimed, " Now, 
Lord Jesus, help ! " This was something which 
the robbers had not expected. They were fright- 
ened, and instantly turned round and walked away. 
And that Christian woman went home, rejoicing 
in the thought of the protection which God had 
given her in answer to her prayer. 



142 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

Here is another illustration of the same kind. 
We may call it Protection in Prayer. 

An English Christian family living in India en- 
gaged the services of a Hindoo girl as a sort of 
nurse to their children. She was kind and gentle 
and faithful, and they all learned to love her. She 
attended daily prayers in this family, and heard 



/^fea^v 




the Scriptures read, and learned to know a good 
deal about the blessed Saviour whom the Christians 
worship. She was well acquainted with all the 
places in the neighborhood, and used to take the 
children out to walk every day. One day they 
walked much farther than usual, and, being tired, 
they all sat down on the grass to rest. While they 
were sitting, one of the children wandered away 
into the woods, and was soon out of sight. The 
nurse concluded to go after her; so, telling the 
other children to stay there till she returned, she 
started, calling out the name of the child as she 



THE SAILOR'S HOME. 143 

went. Presently her call was answered, and the 
child appeared, running towards her. But judge 
of her surprise and terror when just a little way 
beyond the child she saw a great, fierce-looking 
tiger coming up towards them. In a moment the 
brave-hearted girl ran and placed herself between 
the tiger and the child ; and then, feeling that 
there was no help for them but in God, she threw 
herself on her knees, and offered this short prayer 
in great agony of feeling : " O my master's God, 
save my master's child, for Jesus' sake. Amen." 
Then, rising, from her knees and looking towards 
the tiger, she saw, to her great joy, that he had 
turned round and was quietly walking away into 
the forest. Here was protection given in answer 
to prayer. 

3. But then the influence of prayer is comforting 
as well as far-reaching and protecting. God 
teaches us to expect this Avhen he gives us that sweet 
promise, " Call upon me in the day of trouble : I 
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me " (Ps. 
50 : 15). And to show how true this promise is, 
David says, " I sought the Lord, and he heard me, 
and delivered me from all my fears " (Ps. 34 : 4). 
And Abraham and Jacob and Moses and Samuel 
and nearly all the servants of God mentioned in 
the Bible give us examples of the way in which 
they found comfort in prayer. I have just one 
other story, to show the comforting influence there is 



144 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

in prayer. We may call it The Prayerful Child 
and its Ring. 

A little boy had a bright and beautiful ring 
given him by his mother. He prized it greatly 
and used to carry it about with him wherever he 
went. But one day he was unfortunate enough to 
lose his ring. This distressed him greatly. He 
cried for awhile over his loss as though his heart 
would break ; but after awhile, recollecting himself 
and what he had been taught about prayer, he went 
to his own little room, and kneeled down to pray. 
He asked God either to enable him to find his ring 
or else help him to bear the loss of it with patience 
and comfort. Then he went down stairs again, 
looking very bright and cheerful. His sister 
asked him what he had been doing. He told her 
he had been praying about his lost ring. She 
laughed at him, and said, "What's the use of 
praying about a lost ring ? Will praying bring it 
back again ? " " Perhaps not," said the little fel- 
low ; " but praying has done this much for me," 
said he : " it has made me feel quite willing to do 
without it if it is God's will, and this is almost as 
good as having it back again." And this shows us 
the comforting influence of prayer. 

And so when we think of prayer let us remem- 
ber that its influence is far-reaching, protecting, and 
comforting. 



ja £&;§<* 




m^m^^M^ 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE DEER'S LESSON. 

THIS picture took the premium at the School 
of Design connected with the New York 
Cooper Institute. A great many of the pictures 
that young people see are of scenes in England 
or other parts of Europe ; but here we have an 
original American picture. Now let us take a 
good look at it, because it is an American picture. 
The scene which it represents is just such as may 
often be witnessed in the Adirondacks or in many 
other parts of the wild woods of our country. A 
deer has been shot by the hunters. The poor 
creature has fallen to the ground, and its life's 
blood is ebbing away from the wound which the 
hunter's bullet has made. One of its companions 
has approached its side. It sees that its friend is 
in distress, and feels sorry for it. But it has no 
words in which to express its sorrow. It can only 
do this by its actions. And so it has come slowly 
up to the side of its suffering companion. It has 
looked at it awhile, and then, bending down its 
head, it gently licks the wound from which the 

(147) 



148 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

blood is flowing. This is the only way in which 
the deer can show its sympathy for its suffering 
and dying companion. But this does show it. 
This action seems to say, as plainly as if it ex- 
pressed it in words, " I am very sorry for you, my 
friend. I wish I could do something to help and 
to relieve you; but that is not in my power. 
All I can do is to assure you in this way that I 
do sympathize with you." Now take another 
good look at the deer in the picture, and see if 
this is not just what it seems to represent. The 
lesson this deer teaches us is the lesson of sympathy. 

And there are three good reasons why we should 
all try to learn and preach this lesson. 

1. One reason why we should do this is because 
it is so honorable. 

I know how boys sometimes think it may do 
very well for women and girls to show sympathy, 
but that it is not the thing for boys, because it is 
not manly. But this is a great mistake. The 
most perfect pattern of true manliness our world 
has ever known is found in the life of our blessed 
Saviour. But he was full of sympathy. When 
he stood beside the grave of his friend Lazarus, 
we read that "Jesus wept" although he knew that 
he was going to raise him from the dead im- 
mediately. That showed the sympathy that Jesus 
had for those in suffering or sorrow, and it was al- 
ways so with him. His life was full of illustrations 



THE DEER'S LESSON. 149 

of the same sort. And when we learn and practice 
the lesson of sympathy for those in suffering, we 
are doing the most honorable thing that we can 
do, because we are imitating the example of Jesus. 

2. But we ought to learn this lesson of sympa- 
thy, in the next place, because it is so useful. 

To show sympathy to those who are in trouble 
will often comfort them more, and so be more use- 
ful to them, than anything else we could do. 

A good Christian mother was in the habit of 
talking to her children, when they went to bed at 
night, about what they had been doing during the 
day. She had a little girl about seven or eight 
years old, who was trying to be a Christian. 
One night her mother said to her, " Well, Nellie, 
tell me what you have done to-day." "Not 
much," said Nellie. "As I was sitting in my 
place at school before the exercises began, Carrie 
Jones, who sits next to me, came in. She had not 
been to school for a week, and she looked very 
sad. I asked her what was the matter. She said 
they had just buried her little brother. Then she 
covered her face with her hands, and, bowing her 
head on the desk, she cried as if her heart would 
break, and I did not know what to do or say. So 
I put my head down close to hers, and I cried too. 
After awhile she wiped away her tears, and said I 
had done her a great deal of good. But I don't 
know how that could be," said Nellie, " for I only 



150 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

cried with her." Her mother told her that it was 
the sympathy she had showed for her friend in her 
trouble which had done her good. And we ought 
to learn and practice this lesson of sympathy because 
it is so useful. 

3. And then we ought to learn this lesson 
because it is so profitable. One of God's commands 
is " Be ye kind one to another " (Eph. 4 : 32). 
Another is " Weep with them that weep " (Rom. 
12:15). And David tells us that in keeping 
God's commandments " there is great reward " 
(Ps. 19 : 11). This means that God will bless 
those who keep his commandments, and his bless- 
ing is the most profitable thing we can have. And 
if there is honor and usefulness and profit in this 
lesson, we ought to learn it. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE HAPPY FAMILY. 



HERE we have a nice picture of a pussy cat 
with a family of little ones about her. But 
look and see. They are not little ones of the same 
kind that pussy herself belongs to. No, but they 
are little squirrels. This seems very strange. 
Now we know that cats are generally ready to fly 
at squirrels and eat them up as soon as they see 
them. But the cat in our picture is doing no such 
thing. She has a family of three little squirrels 
about her, and she does not seem at all inclined to 
eat them. On the contrary they are climbing over 
her and playing about her, and she looks as pleased 
as possible. The cat seems happy, and the squir- 
rels seem happy, and they all seem happy together. 
And so we may well speak of them as " The 
Happy Family." 

And surely, if creatures so different from each 
other in their nature and habits as cats and squir- 
rels can live together in peace and make a happy 
family, then all families that are made up of 
Christian boys and girls and men and women, 

(153) 



154 FIVE MINUTE TALKS. 

ought to be happy families. But we all know 
very well that this is not the case. You, or I, or 
all of us know many such families that are far 
from being happy. There must be something in 
the way of their being happy. What can it be that 
prevents happiness? Three things may be men- 
tioned, any one of which, if allowed, will surely 
have this effect. 

1. The first that must prevent any family from 
being happy is disobedience. 

See, here is a watch. J jet us open the case and 
look at the works inside of it. How many wheels 
are there ! They are all moving slowly on. We 
hear it going tick, tick, tick. While the works go 
smoothly on, and the watch is keeping time, it is 
like a happy family. But suppose we drop just 
one little grain of sand in among those wheels. 
What a tiny thing a grain of sand is ! What 
harm can such a little thing as that do ? We shall 
see. Presently you lift the watch up to your ear 
and listen. The ticking has ceased. The watch 
has stopped. And what has made it stop? Why 
that grain of sand. The main spring is not 
broken. The watch has not run down. You may 
wind it up if you please, but it will do no good. 
That grain of sand makes one of the wheels stand 
still. And that one wheel standing still stops the 
watch. The works of the watch will not go on 
again until that grain of sand is taken out of it. 



THE HAPPY FAMILY. 155 

Now every family is like a watch. And each 
member of the family is like one of the wheels of 
the watch. And a family can only be made happy, 
as a watch can only keep time, when all the wheels 
are in motion. If one member of the family re- 
fuses to obey orders, it will be like the grain of 
sand in the watch. The works must stand still. 
The watch will not keep time. Disobedience will 
destroy the happiness of any family. If you wish 
to do what you can to make the family in which 
you live a happy one, learn to obey. 

2. Another thing that will destroy the happiness 
of any family is bad temper. 

Did you ever see a porcupine ? It is a little 
animal about as big as a rabbit ; only instead of 
the rabbit's soft, smooth fur, the porcupine is 
covered with a coat of quills, These are stiff and 
sharp-pointed. Generally these quills lie flat down 
like the feathers of a bird. But when anything 
disturbs the little animal, it has the power of mak- 
ing these quills stick out all over its body. If 
you touch it, these sharp quills will stick you like 
pins. What a disagreeable little animal a porcu- 
pine must be to have near one ! Suppose that a 
porcupine should be put in the place of one of the 
little squirrels in our picture. And suppose that 
every time one of the squirrels came near while 
playing it should get angry, and stick out all its 
sharp-pointed quills. How very unpleasant that 



156 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

would be ! This would uot be a happy family any 
longer. 

And bad-tempered boys and girls in a family 
are just like porcupines. Their temper makes 
them as disagreeable to those about them as a por- 
cupine is when he sticks out his sharp quills, so 
that no one can touch him or come near him with- 
out being hurt. If we want to make the family 
in which we live a happy one, we must watch 
against a bad temper. 

3. And then another thing that will prevent 
any family from being happy is selfishness. 

There are two boys playing see-saw. But they 
do not seem to get on very well. Let us go up to 
them and see if we can find out what is the cause 
of the trouble. There is the plank they are play- 
ing with, and under it is the big stone or rock on 
which the plank rests. Now to make see-sawing 
go on well, the rock on which the plank rests 
ought to be just in the middle of the plank. But 
it is not so here. One of the boys has a much 
longer piece of the plank on his side of the rock 
than his brother has. This spoils the play. The 
plank won't work in this way. And what is the 
cause of this? Why, that is a selfish boy. He is 
not willing to let his brother have as much of the 
plank as he has himself. And that is one of many 
ways in which selfishness will prevent any family 
from being happy. 



THE HAPPY FAMILY. 157 

Two little girls named Susie and Addie lived 
very happily together. A lady visiting them 
asked Susie one day how they managed to get on 
so pleasantly. The answer was, " Why, Addie lets 
me, and I let Addie." If you want to have a 
happy family, watch against these three things : 
disobedience, bad temper, and selfishness. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

LESSONS FROM THE FOXES. 

THE Bible teaches us that we may learn valua- 
ble lessons from all God's creatures. Solo- 
mon tells us to " go to the ant " (Prov. 6 : 6) for 
the lesson of industry. When the prophet Isaiah 
wanted the Jews to know that God was their 
owner, he sent them to the ox and the ass that they 
might learn this lesson (Isa. 1 : 3). When our 
blessed Saviour wished to show how we ought to 
trust in God, he made the birds our teachers, and 
sent us to learn this lesson from " the fowls of the 
air" (Matt. 6 : 26). 

Now let us look at the picture before us. Here 
are two foxes playing. Are there any useful lessons 
for us to learn from these foxes? Think of Solo- 
mon's words when he says, "Take us the foxes, 
the little foxes, that spoil the vines" (Cant. 2 : 15). 
Three questions are started here for us to answer. 
These will teach us some useful lessons. 

1. The first question is this: What are foxes 
like? 

They are like sins. And the " little foxes " here 
(158) 



LESSONS FROM THE FOXES. 161 

spoken of are like little sins. These may refer to 
the sins we have when we are young. 

a. One reason why foxes may be compared to 
sin, is because they have dens to hide in. Jesus 
said, " Foxes have holes " (Matt. 8 : 20). Here 
they hide away ; and when they are hidden in their 
holes it is very hard to find them. And so it is 
with our sins. Our hearts are the dens or holes 
in which they hide themselves. If the foxes could 
be kept out of their holes, it would be easy to 
" take" them. But when they creep in there and 
hide away, it is very hard to get at them. 

If I were a farmer, and had a den of foxes on 
my farm, I never should rest till I could get that 
den cleaned out. And so we should feel about our 
hearts where sins lie hid away. We should bring 
them to Jesus, and say with David, each one for 
himself, " Create in me a clean heart, O God ; and 
renew a right spirit within me " (Ps. 51 : 10). 

b. And then foxes are like sins again, because 
they are very sly. There is nothing for which the 
fox is more noted than for its cunning or its sly- 
ness. It will lie or cheat, and steal, and it will lie 
and cheat in order that it may steal. And so it is 
with sin. It calls things by wrong names. This 
is lying. It pretends to be what it is not. This 
is cheating. And it does this on purpose to destroy 
our peace, our happiness, and our hope of heaven. 
This is the worst sort of stealing. 

li 



162 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

And so, in answer to the first question, What 
are foxes like ? we may well say they are like sins. 

2. But the second question is, What should we do 
with foxes f 

Solomon says, " Take the foxes." This means 
catch them. We can do nothing with them till we 
catch them. And it is so with our sins. We 
should find out what they are and where they are, 
and then we should try to get hold of them and 
conquer them. Here is work for all young per- 
sons. Every boy and girl has something to do 
here. And the sooner we begin the better. Solo- 
mon was wise when he said, " Take the little 
foxes." We cannot do this of ourselves. We 
need the help of God's grace and Spirit in taking 
these little foxes, or in catching and conquering our 
sins. And if we pray heartily for this help, we 
shall certainly get it. See what a sweet promise 
there is in Isaiah 41 : 10. Here God says to you, 
and me, and every one who is trying to serve him, 
" Fear thou not ; for ... I will help thee." And 
he always means what he says. His promises are 
made not to be broken, but to be kept. Jesus 
said, " The Scripture cannot be broken " (John 10 : 
35). Then let us all begin at once to " take the 
little foxes." The second question is, What should 
we do with the foxes ? The answer to it is, We 
should take or catch them. 

3. The third question is, Why should we do this f 



LESSONS FROM THE FOXES. 163 

There is reason enough for doing this when we 
know that they " spoil the vines." These " little 
foxes " gnaw off the bark from the vines ; they 
break off the young twigs ; they eat the grapes 
before they are ripe ; they scratch up the soil from 
the roots ; and in these and other ways they " spoil 
the vines. " This is reason enough for taking or 
catching the " little foxes." And it is just so with 
our sins, which these foxes represent. Solomon 
says, " One sinner destroyeth much good " (Eccl. 
9 : 18). One boy or girl who tells lies, or uses 
bad words, or sets an example of disobedience, may 
do more harm in a family or school than any one 
can tell. Then let us all watch out for " the little 
foxes " in the garden of our hearts, and let us ask 
God to help us in taking and destroying them. 
Then our vines will grow and prosper. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

A TALK ABOUT BEARS. 

THE family of bears is quite a large family. 
It is divided into several branches. One 
of these is known as the brown bear. This, is 
found chiefly in Europe and Asia. Then there is 
another branch of this family known as the black 
bear, or the American bear. This is found in many 
parts of our own country. Great numbers of 
these bears are killed for their skins. The skin of 
the black bear has a smooth, glossy fur, and is 
much used for making cloaks and caps and such 
things. And then, in the Rocky Mountains, there 
is another branch of the bear family known as the 
grizzly bear. This is a larger animal, and much 
more savage than the black bear. One of these 
bears will sometimes measure nine feet from its 
nose to its tail. 

But the largest bear of the family is that called 
the polar bear. This is the one represented in our 
picture. These bears are sometimes found ten feet 
in length, and five feet high. We may learn two 

(164) 



A TALK ABOUT BEARS. 167 

useful lessons from what we know about the polar 
bear. 

1 . One of these is the lesson of trust. 

One thing about the polar bears which teaches 
us this lesson is (a) the way they are clothed. They 
are called polar bears because they live near the 
North Pole. It is very cold there. Look at our 
picture. One of the bears here is on the ice ; the 
other is in the water, and that is about as cold as 
ice. We should find it too cold for us to live there 
with any comfort. But these bears get on very 
nicely. They feel quite at home on the ice or in the 
ice- water : and well they may ; for God has taken 
care to clothe them in such a way that they do not 
feel the cold. They have nice white coats of long, 
thick, heavy fur. Thus they are fitted for living 
comfortably in that cold region. God knew just 
what they would need, and he has kindly provided 
for their need. And when we think of this, we 
may well learn to trust our Father in heaven, who 
takes such good care of all his creatures. The way 
the bears are clothed is one thing about them which 
teaches us this lesson. 

And then another thing which teaches the same 
lesson is (b) the way they are fed. If you and I 
were living up where these polar bears live, we 
should find it very hard to get our " daily bread," or 
what the Bible calls " food convenient for us." 

If a committee of our best and wisest men were 



168 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

appointed to attend to feeding all the bears up in 
that frozen region, they would have a hard time 
of it, and so would the poor bears. Many of them 
would starve every winter, and the family of the 
polar bears would soon die out. But, as Jesus 
said of the birds, we may say of the bears : 
" Your heavenly Father feedeth them." 

Look what a nice fat seal that bear on the ice 
has under his big paws ! That will be enough to 
make a real good meal for those two bears. And 
in the water round about where they live, they 
always find the kind of food that suits them, and 
as much of it as they need. What a beautiful 
illustration we have here of the meaning of David's 
words, when he looked up to God in the very 
spirit of trust of which we are speaking, and 
said : " Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the 
desire of every living thing" (Ps. 145 : 16). 

And when we think of the way in which these 
bears are clothed, and the way in which they are 
fed, we may well learn from them the lesson of trust. 

2. The other lesson we may learn from these 
polar bears is the lesson of affection. 

They live in such a cold country, and they look 
so hard and savage, that we should hardly expect 
to find anything kind, or tender, or loving in 
them. But we do find it. Their fondness for 
their young is very remarkable. When their little 
ones have been killed, instead of going off and 



A TALK ABOUT BEARS. 169 

leaving them without any concern, they show the 
greatest affection for them. They will stay by 
them, and lick them with their tongues, and fondk 
them, and whine pitifully over them, and will 
even allow themselves to be taken rather than 
forsake them. And this is a good lesson for us to 
learn from the polar bears. Let us be kind to all 
about us, and especially to the young and the help- 
less. And when we hear about the polar bears, 
let us think of these two lessons that they teach 
us — the lesson of trust and the lesson of affection. 

We may learn a good lesson from the Story of 
Two Bears. — A man and his wife had both joined 
the church. They had long been known in the 
neighborhood where they lived for their bad tem- 
pers and frequent quarrels. But mow a great 
change had come over them. Their home was a 
home of peace. A friend asked the husband one 
day, " How do you manage to .get along so pleas- 
antly ? " " We do it," said he, " by keeping two 
bears in our house." " What two bears ? " " Why 
bear and forbear ; these keep us from quarreling." 
Let us all keep these two bears about us. Then 
we shall live in peace. "Be kindly affectioned 
one to another with brotherly love; in honour 
preferring one another. . . . If it be possible, as 
much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 
... Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil 
with good" (Rom. 12 : 10, 18, 21). 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE BEST GARDENER. 

THIS little girl is watering the flowers she has 
in her garden. We do not know who this 
girl is, nor the history of her garden and its flow- 
ers. If we did, it might be interesting to give her 
history, and tell what her name is and where she 
lives and all about her. But this cannot be done. 
Yet the picture suggests a passage of Scripture 
which it may be worth our while to refer to and 
talk a little about. 

In the 27th chapter of Isaiah, 2d and 3d verses, 
God compares his Church to a vineyard or garden, 
and speaks of himself as having the charge of it. 
This brings him before us in very much the same 
relation which the little girl in our picture sustains 
to the flowers in her garden. We see her acting 
as a gardener. And this is the way in which God 
teaches us to think of him, in the passage of Scrip- 
ture just referred to. Here the garden spoken of 
means the church of God. And this is the relation 
he sustains to the whole church. But then what 
is true of the church is true of every member of it. 
(170) 



THE BEST GARDENER. 173 

Every promise made to the whole church is made 
to each member of it. And it is just so with the 
sweet promise found in the passage of which we 
are speaking. 

If we are trying to love and serve Jesus, then 
we are plants or flowers in his garden, and God 
will be our Gardener ; and it is very pleasant to 
know that he is indeed The Best Gardener. 

There are three things connected with him which 
we can easily see must make him such a gardener. 

1. One of these is his constant presence. 

In spring-time and in summer a garden needs 
the constant presence of the gardener if it is to be 
kept in a flourishing state. But earthly gardeners 
cannot be always present in their gardens. They 
often have to go away to attend to other things. 
At times they may be unexpectedly prevented from 
getting back as soon as they intended, and during 
their absence the garden may suffer, the plants and 
flowers may wither and die. But this can never 
happen in God's garden ; and the reason is that he 
is never absent from it. We never can be present 
in two places at the same time ; but God can be 
always present, not in two places only at the same 
time, but in every place. This is one of the most 
marvelous things about him, and one in which he 
differs altogether from all his people. We cannot 
understand this, but we know that it is so. In 
summer and in winter, by day and by night, he is 



174 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

present in his garden and present with every plant 
and flower there. And his constant presence is one 
thing that makes him The Best Gardener. 

2. Another thing which helps to give him this 
character is his unceasing care. 

An earthly gardener may be present in his gar- 
den continually, and yet may forget or neglect to 
give to the plants and flowers there the care and 
attention that they require. His mind may be so 
occupied with other things that he may not water 
them or do such other things as are needed for 
their proper growth. Solomon speaks of going by 
the vineyard or garden of the sluggard, and finding 
it all grown over with thorns and covered with 
nettles (Prov. 24 : 30-32). It was the want of 
proper care which caused that garden thus to suffer. 
Bat this can never happen in God's garden. He 
waters it every moment. This means that he never 
forgets it. He is always thinking about it and 
taking care of it. He says, " Lest any hurt it, I 
will keep it night and day " (Isaiah 27 : 3). This 
is wonderful. And if we are in God's garden, it 
is pleasant to think that this is the kind of care he 
takes of every plant and flower there. And so 
when we think of his unceasing care, we see how 
well he may be called " The Best Gardener." 

3. And then the other thing which shows this 
is his unfailing power. 

An earthly gardener may be present in his gar- 



THE BEST GARDENER. 175 

den all the time, and may never cease caring for it, 
and yet many things may happen to injure his 
garden which he has no power to prevent. The 
frost may blight his plants, the sun may scorch 
them, or the insects may destroy them, without his 
being able to prevent it. But nothing like this 
can happen to any of the plants or flowers in God's 
garden. He has power, that never fails, to protect 
and keep and bless his garden. And when we put 
these three things together and think of his con- 
stant presence, his unceasing care, and his unfailing 
power, we see how well he may be called " The 
Best Gardener." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE DANGER OF TEMPTATION. 

HERE is a picture of a boy in trouble. He 
is known as "Meddlesome Tom." This 
name was given to him because he was all the time 
doing things that he ought not to do, and so was 
always getting into trouble. The picture itself 
gives a good illustration of this. One day Tom's 
father had a curious thing called " a galvanic bat- 
tery " brought into his study. We see this on the 
table in the picture. It is like a box, with plates 
of glass standing upright in the midst of a strange 
sort of liquid that fills the box. Then there are 
long wires connected with this box. These have 
smooth handles at the end of them. And when 
tho machine is in order, if a person takes hold of 
these handles it has a very strange effect upon 
him. Tom had heard a great deal about this 
machine. He made up his mind to go in and look 
at it. He did so when there was no one there. 
He gazed at it awhile in wonder. And then, 
though he had been told not to touch it, he could 
not resist the temptation to meddle with it. So 

(176) 



THE DANGER OF TEMPTATION. 179 

he took hold of the handles. The moment he did 
so, he felt as if he was in the hands of a great 
giant who was sticking pins and needles into his 
hands and arms. He was terribly frightened, and 
screamed out as loud as he could. His father 
heard him. He came in and loosed his hands from 
the machine. The rest of the family laughed at 
him, and Tom crept away to his room feeling very 
much ashamed of himself. 

Now, there may be no such machine in our 
house. We may have no temptation like this to 
meet. But we shall find other temptations in our 
daily paths into which we shall be in danger of 
falling. And if we give way to these temptations 
we shall surely get into trouble, as Tom did by 
meddling with that galvanic battery. 

Let us look at two of these. 

1. One danger that we all have to meet con- 
tinually, is the temptation of untruthfulness. 

What a happy thing it is for a boy or girl to 
be known as truthful! One of the first things for 
all us to do is to try to get this character for our- 
selves. But we cannot do it without trying. And 
our trying will not be worth much unless we ask 
God to help us. We are born with sinful hearts. 
And one of the ways in which this sinfulness 
shows itself is by not always telling the truth. 
David understood thi: as well as anybody. And 
when he was speaking of children generally, he 



180 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

said, " They go astray as soon as they be born, 
speaking lies " (Ps. 58 : 3). 

And then, in addition to these sinfnl hearts, 
there is Satan at hand to tempt us to speak lying 
words. Lying is part of his business. He is 
" the father of lies." He told the first lie ever 
spoken in our world, when he contradicted God 
and said to our mother, Eve, " Ye shall not surely 
die." And who wants to go into partnership with 
Satan ? Yet this is what we do when we tell a 
lie. 

There are two texts from the Bible that should 
keep every boy and girl from ever telling a lie. 
One is Pro v. 12 : 22. Here we read that " Lying 
lips are abomination to the Lord." Who wants 
to be an abomination to the Lord? And yet this 
is what we must be if we tell lies. Think of that 
when tempted to say what is not true. 

The other text that should keep us from telling 
lies is Rev. 22 : 15. Here the apostle John has 
been speaking about heaven. After describing 
that bright and beautiful place, he tells us of 
different kinds of people who can never enter there. 
And among others he says that " whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie " must remain outside of that 
blessed place. Let us think of these two passages 
of Scripture whenever we are tempted to say what 
is not true ; and let us pray God for grace to resist 
the temptation to untruthfulness. 



THE DANGER OF TEMPTATION. 181 

2. And then another danger that will often 
meet us is the temptation to dishonesty. 

A gentleman had two boys who were doing 
little jobs of work for him during the week. On 
Saturday night he settled with them for their work. 
On the way home, as they counted out their 
money, they found that they each had a quarter 
of a dollar more than belonged to them. One of 
them said " he guessed he'd keep it, for he had 
worked hard enough for it." 

The other boy took his quarter straight back 
and returned it to the owner. Now it turned out 
that it was not a mistake on the part of the gentle- 
man. He did it on purpose to find out if the boys 
were honest. The boy who kept the quarter 
proved that he was dishonest, and the gentleman 
never employed him again. The other boy showed 
that he was honest. He found steady work, and 
was finally taken into the business. 

Let us be truthful and honest, and then we shall 
prosper. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND HOW TO MEET THEM. 

LOOK at the boy in this picture. He is find- 
ing out what it is to be disappointed. He 
had come home hungry for his dinner. His 
mother had given him a dish of milk with some 
boiled potatoes in it. He had taken a seat on the 
ground under the grape-vine arbor, near the house, 
and was just going to have a good time in eating 
his dinner, when two big, greedy geese came along. 
They wanted to get some of the dinner out of that 
dish ; and before the little fellow has had a taste 
of his good things, one of the geese has upset the 
dish. The milk is spilled, and the potatoes are 
sent rolling away in the dirt. What a disappoint- 
ment this was to that hungry boy ! 

And something like this we must all expect to. 
meet with in this life. Let us look at some exam- 
ples of disappointment. 

1. The Baby's Disappointment — A nurse is 
walking on the porch, with a baby in her arms, 
one moonlight night. The baby sees the moon 
shining up in the sky. It has no idea how big the 

(182) 



D1SA PPOINTMENTS, AND HO W TO MEET THEM. 185 

moon is, nor how far away it is. It stretches out 
its little hands to grasp that bright and beautiful 
thing the moon, but cannot do it. It tries again 
and again, but in vain ; then it bursts into tears. 
That is the baby's first disappointment. 

2. The Boy and his Kite. — A gentleman was 
walking along a road in the country. He saw a 
little boy sitting on the grassy bank by the side of 
the road and crying bitterly. There was a kite 
lying on the grass near the boy. Thinking that 
perhaps somebody had been hurting the little fel- 
low, the gentleman went up to him and said very 
kindly, " What's the matter, my little man ? " 

With the big tears rolling down his cheeks, the 
boy looked up to the gentleman and said, " I can't 
make my kite go up, sir." 

The gentleman tried to comfort him, and then, 
as he went on his way, he said to himself, " Ah, 
this little fellow is beginning to find out something 
about the disappointments of life ! " 

These are illustrations of some of the ways in 
which young people meet with disappointments. 
And when we grow up to be men and women, we 
shall meet them still in other forms. Now, what 
do we need to enable us to meet disappointments 
in the best way ? 

There are two things we need in order to do 
this. 

1. We need help. 



186 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

We do not know what this little boy did when 
he lost his dinner. He went to his mother, per- 
haps, and asked her to give him some more. That 
would be about the best help he could get under 
his disappointment. But how are we to get help 
when disappointments come to us ? 

We must ask God to help us. And he has 
promised to do it. In Isaiah 41 : 10 God says, 
" I will help thee." Meeting disappointments is 
like carrying a heavy burden. Now, suppose you 
are carrying a heavy burden along the street. 
Presently you feel tired, and are glad to lay it 
down and rest. It is so heavy that you cannot 
carry it any further. Just then your Sunday- 
school teacher comes along. He sees the trouble 
you are in, and says, " Come along, John ; I'll take 
hold of the bundle and help you carry it." Then 
you would get along nicely. Or suppose that, in- 
stead of taking hold of your bundle, he was able 
to give you the strength to carry it comfortably 
yourself: that would be giving you just the help 
you needed. 

Now this is what God has promised to do. In 
that verse from Isaiah referred to above, God says 
to you and me, " Fear thou not ; for I am with 
thee : be not dismayed : for I am thy God : I will 
strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee." God can 
do this very easily ; and when we meet with dis- 
appointments, when we have hard things to do or 



DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND HO W TO MEET THEM. 187 

heavy burdens to bear, if we go and pray to him, 
and tell him what we need, he will fulfill his 
promise, and will give us strength and help. 

2. But when we meet with disappointments, ive 
need hope. 

Suppose that when this little boy ran in and 
told his mother how he had lost his dinner, she 
had said to him, " Never mind, Charley ; just take 
that little basket and go to the grocery store in the 
village, and get me some rice and sugar and tea, 
and when you come back I'll have another dinner 
ready for you, a great deal nicer than the one you 
lost." 

That would make Charley feel fine. The hope 
of getting that nice dinner would be a great com- 
fort to him. He would get the basket and go to 
the grocery, whistling merrily all the way. And 
as he went he would be thinking all the time about 
the nice dinner he was to have when he came home. 
The hope of getting what his mother had promised 
would help him to bear his disappointment cheer- 
fully. And this is the w r ay in which God deals 
with us. The Bible is full of good things which 
God has promised to give us when we get home to 
heaven. And the hope of getting those good 
things should make us feel patient and cheerful 
when we meet with disappointments. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE snow is falling, and everything around 
this young girl is covered by the white 
mantle which it forms. She has put on her hat 
and gone out of doors to take a look at things, 
while the snow is coming gently down. But it is 
not mere frolic or play that she is after. What a 
good-natured, kind-looking face she has ! And 
see, in her right hand she has a little twig, plucked 
from a holly bush, with leaves and berries on it. 
Her eye is fixed on that little bird, which has 
perched itself on the slender branch of that sawed - 
off-tree, just above the top of the fence. The 
dear child has only thoughts of kindness in her 
mind. It is very clear she is bent on helping that 
little bird to its breakfast, from the red berries of 
the holly. I wonder if she is not a member of 
S. P. C. A., or the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals? If she is not, I am sure 
she would make a good member, for you can al- 
most see kindness to animals written on her honest, 
beaming face. 

(188) 



OUR FATHER'S CARE. 191 

When we look at a little bird amidst a wintry 
scene like this, the question naturally comes up, 
how do the birds manage to live through the cold, 
dark, wintry days, when the earth is wrapped in 
snow ? 

Few things illustrate " our Father's care " so 
sweetly as the way in which birds are provided for, 
in the goodness of God, during the winter season. 
Our Saviour gave us this illustration, in his Ser- 
mon on the Mount, when he said : " Behold the 
fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they 
reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
Father feedeth them " (Matt, 6 : 26). 

There are three ways in which God provides for 
the birds in winter, and each of them shows his 
loving care. 

1. One way of doing this is by migration. 

To migrate means to go from one country to 
another. God has taught many of our birds to 
do this. Before cold weather comes these birds 
get together in large companies. They hold as it 
were a bird's convention. Some of them seem to 
make speeches. They arrange a plan to leave all 
together, and fly away to some warm country 
where they can find plenty of food. At a given 
signal they start. They spend the winter in that 
sunny olimate, and then come back in the spring. 

From the southern parts of Europe the birds 
go over to Africa, and spend the winter there. 



m FIVE-3HNUTE TALKS. 

In doing this they have to fly all the way across 
the Mediterranean Sea. That is a long journey 
for such little creatures to take. When once they 
start upon it' there is no place for them to stop and 
rest. They cannot get a drop of water to drink 
nor a morsel of food to eat till they get through. 
They cannot see where they are going to when 
they begin their journey. They have no compass, 
like the sailor, to steer by. And yet they never 
miss their way. God always carries them safely 
through. What a beautiful illustration of "our 
Father's care " we have in the way in which birds 
are provided for by their migration ! 

2. Another ^Yay in which birds are provided for 
in the winter is by the opening of GooVs hand. 

In the berries of the holly bushes, and the cedar 
trees, and in other things of the same kind, which 
God has caused to grow in the fields, and gardens, 
and forests of the land, the hardy little birds which 
remain with us during the winter find their daily 
food. And most of this food is hung up on the 
trees, so that, even when the snow comes, it does 
not all get covered up. The hungry little birds 
can always find it there. 

And it is a very sweet way of speaking of this 
that David makes use of, when he compares the 
provision thus made for the supply of these dumb 
creatures to the opening of God's hand. This is 
wha^ he means when he says, " Thou openest thine 



OUR FATHER'S CARE. 193 

hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living 
thing " (Ps. 145 : 16). And then, as we look at 
them thoughtfully, each of these berries, while the 
branch that holds it is swaying in the wind, will 
seem to speak to us tenderly and lovingly of " our 
Father's care." 

3. The third way in which God provides for 
the birds in winter is by opening the hearts of his 
people. 

How many good, kind people there are in our 
large cities who are in the habit, every morning, 
of throwing a lot of crumbs of bread on the pave- 
ment in front of their dwellings, or in their yards ; 
and multitudes of little birds watch for these 
crumbs, and find their support in them from day 
to day. But it is God that puts the thought of 
doing this into the hearts of his people. All good 
thoughts come from him. And so it is true, if 
we look at it rightly, that every crumb of bread 
thus thrown to the little birds, will seem to speak 
to us of " our Father's care." 

And even in doing so little a thing as this, we 
may find pleasure in feeling that we are a part of 
God's great plan. In my quiet little country 
home at Mount Airy I have a lot of nice pigeons. 
The first thing after breakfast every morning, I 
take" a pail of water and go out to the barn to 
feed them. They are always waiting for me on 
the roof of the barn. The moment they see me they 
13 



194 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

all fly together to meet me. In the noisy flapping 
of their wings I can almost hear them say, 
" Hurrah ! boys, here comes the good fellow that 
brings us our breakfast ! " Then they fly back to 
the barn, and before I can mount up into the loft 
they are all there, looking at me with their little 
heads cunningly turned aside, as much as to say, 
" Here we are, sir, ready for breakfast ! " And I 
feel it a real pleasure to help supply the wants of 
these little creatures of God. 

And so, when we think of the different ways in 
which God provides for the birds, by migration, 
by opening his hand, and by opening the hearts of 
his people, we may see in each an illustration of 
" our Father's care." 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

ICEBERGS. 

HERE is a picture of a scene on board of one 
of our ocean steamers. She is sailing over 
what are known as " the banks of Newfoundland." 
Our steamers cross these banks in going to Europe 
and in returning. And, at certain seasons of the 
year, it is in this part of the ocean that icebergs 
are met with. There is a current of water that 
flows down from the Polar Sea, and runs across or 
near these " banks of Newfoundland." And when 
those great masses of ice are broken off from the 
glaciers or frozen rivers of the far-off North, they 
float out to sea, and this current carries them down 
along in the direction of our great continent, till, 
finally, they melt away in the warm sunshine of 
the South. 

The steamer in our picture has come in sight of 
icebergs. Some of the passengers have met to- 
gether on the quarter-deck to have a good look at 
the icebergs, as the steamer is sailing by them. A 
jolly-looking old sailor is pointing them out to the 
passengers, who are looking eagerly at them. The 

(197) 



198 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

old gentleman is using the spy-glass to get a better 
view. 

Now suppose that you and I were on board this 
steamer. We join the company on deck, who are 
gazing at the icebergs. And what do we see in 
them? If we looked at them, and thought of 
them aright, we might see in those great floating 
masses of ice three instructive lessons. 

1. In the first place, we might see a lesson of 
beauty in those icebergs. For one thing, there 
would be beauty in their size. They rise out of 
the water like mountains of ice. Sometimes they 
will be one, two, or three hundred feet high above 
the surface of the water. And then they will go 
down into the depths of the sea further even than 
they rise above it. This makes them really won- 
derful in their size. 

But then their form or shape is beautiful as well 
as their size. Sometimes these icebergs are seen in 
the distance looking just like great white temples, 
with their spires and steeples sparkling in the sun- 
shine, as they go floating along. Then you see 
what beauty there is in the form or shape of the 
icebergs. 

But it is especially in their color that their 
beauty appears. Of course icebergs are made of 
frozen snow and water, and so in general their color 
is white. But as the sun shines on the ice the rays 
are decomposed, just as they often are by a prism 



ICEBERGS. 199 

glass. And this brings out all the colors of the 
rainbow. You see the blue and the purple, the 
orange, the green, and the rest of the seven colors 
all blending beautifully together there. This has 
a very fine effect. And as you stand and gaze on 
those floating masses of ice sailing slowly by in 
their varied colors, you cannot help exclaiming, 
" How beautiful ! " Thus we have a lesson of 
beauty in the icebergs. 

2. We look at them again, and they teach us a 
lesson of danger. Suppose that a steamer, under a 
full head of steam, or a sailing vessel, under full 
sail, should run against an iceberg at night. What 
would the effect be ? Very bad for the vessel. 
Many a vessel has been seriously injured in this 
way. Sometimes the injury has been so great that 
the vessel has suddenly sunk — going down into 
the deep waters with all on board. Not a word 
has ever been heard of any of the passengers, the 
officers, or the crew. They are reported as " miss- 
ing," and that is all their sorrowing friends will 
ever know about them in this world. How sad 
this is ! 

But these icebergs, floating out to sea, and in- 
volving so much danger to passing vessels, may 
well remind us of the dangers to which we are 
exposed in our voyage over the sea of life. The 
temptations we meet with here, bring dangers to 
us as great as those which the icebergs bring to 



200 FIVE-MINUTE TAIK8. 

passing vessels. When we are tempted to disobey 
our parents, to break the Sabbath, or to act dis- 
honestly, there is danger in these things that may 
lead to our injury or ruin as surely and as suddenly 
as vessels are injured or sunk by dashing against 
an iceberg. And when Ave see a real iceberg or the 
picture of one, it may well remind us of this lesson 
of danger. 

3. But there is also a lesson of safety suggested 
to us by looking at these icebergs. I remember 
once, when at sea, and walking up and down the 
quarter-deck with the captain of the vessel, I asked 
him to tell me frankly if he ever felt afraid at sea. 
His reply was : " I do not feel afraid of the winds 
or the waves. But there are several things of 
which I confess I do feel afraid. And among 
these are the icebergs. To run against one of them 
at night would be horrible. But I know it is only 
at a certain season of the year and in a certain 
part of the ocean that there is any danger of meet- 
ing icebergs. And if I am sailing over that part 
of the ocean at the season when icebergs are to 
be met with, I am always very watchful about 
them. And there is one way in which you can 
always tell if they are about, even before you 
see them. They make the water in the sea colder 
than it would be if they were not there. And so, 
when I think that icebergs may be near, I have a 
bucket of water drawn from the sea several times 



ICEBERGS. 201 

a day, and put the thermometer in to see how cold 
it is. I know what the temperature of the water 
is in those parts generally. And if I find it get- 
ting several degrees colder than usual, then I know 
that the icebergs are near, and I keep a bright 
lookout for them." 

I have never forgotten that captain's words. 
And here the lesson of safety from the icebergs 
comes to us. We are liable to meet the icebergs 
of temptation at all times and in every part of the 
sea of life. The Bible must be our thermometer. 
If we make a right use of it, it will always tell us 
when we are in danger from sin, and' will show us 
the way of escape from it. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

TAKING IN THE FLYING JIB. 

THIS picture represents two sailors out on what 
is called the bowsprit of a vessel. The 
bowsprit is that part of a vessel which is shaped like 
the mast, but which, instead of being set upright, 
as the mast is, projects in a slanting direction over 
the front or bow of the vessel. What is called 
the flying jib is a long, narrow, three-cornered sail 
at the farthest end of the bowsprit. In our pic- 
ture this sail has been hauled down, and the sailors 
are engaged in rolling it up and fastening it to the 
bowsprit. The flying jib is a sail that is only used 
in good weather. When the wind blows too fresh, 
or there are signs of a storm coming on, one of the 
first things the sailors do is to take in this sail. 
And this may teach us a good lesson. Our life 
is often compared to the ocean. We are all sailors 
making our way across this ocean. When there 
is danger near, and we try properly to meet that 
danger, it may well be said of us that we are 
" taking in the flying jib." 
(202) 




.:-uU'i'IMir. 



TAKING IN THE FLYING JIB. 205 

We may speak of three ways of doing this. 

1. One of the ways in which this may be done 
is by remembering God's presence. 

We know very well that God is present every- 
where. We all profess to believe this. When we 
read what David says about this in the 139th 
Psalm, we admit at once that it is true. " Whither 
shall I go from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee 
from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, 
thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold 
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn- 
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; 
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the dark- 
ness shall cover me ; even the night shall be light 
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from 
thee ; but the night shineth as the day : the dark- 
ness and the light are both alike to theeP 

This is very beautiful, and we all believe it. 
But we do not all remember it, and live and act 
as though we really believed it. If we could only 
feel that the great, all-seeing eye of God was look- 
ing at us all the time, wherever we go, how many 
wrong things that we do every day should we be 
kept from doing ! Like Joseph, when tempted to 
do what is wrong, we should be ready to say, "How 
. . . can I do this great wickedness, and sin against 
God ? " It is dangerous to forget the great truth 
that "Thou God seest me." Let us pray for 



206 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

grace to remember God's presence, and then we 
shall be -"taking in the flying jib." 

2. We may do this again by breaking up bad 
habits. 

It is very easy to get into the way of doing 
what is wrong. It may not be quite so easy to do 
a wrong thing at first, but if Ave go on doing it for 
a little while we soon form the habit of doing it, 
and then we go on in that way almost without 
knowing it. 

The story is told of a miser who had so long 
been in the habit of stealing from others, that one 
day he stole a guinea out of his own pocket, and 
laughed at his smartness when he put it into his 
iron chest and locked it safely up there. There is 
nothing more dangerous than a bad habit. We 
must watch and pray against our bad habits if we 
wish to break them up. This was what David 
was doing when he looked up to God and said, 
" Search me, O God, and know my heart : try me, 
and know my thoughts : and see if there be any 
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever- 
lasting" (Psalm 139 : 23, 24). And when by the 
help of God we are enabled to break up any bad 
habits that we have fallen into, then it may be 
said that we are " taking in the flying jib." 

3. And then we may do this again by refusing 
to follow bad examples. 

An orphan boy named George applied for a 



TAKING IN THE FIYING JIB. 207 

situation in a store. The merchant liked his looks 
and was on the point of engaging him, when he 
saw a segar sticking out of his coat pocket. Then 
he said, " You won't do for me, my lad. I don't 
want a boy that smokes." George had some com- 
panions who had learned to smoke, and he was 
following their bad example. He was greatly dis- 
tressed at the thought of losing the place he 
wanted to get. He went to his room, threw him- 
self on his bed, and burst into tears. He remem- 
bered the words of his dying mother, how she had 
warned him not to follow the example of bad 
boys. Then he kneeled down and confessed his 
sin to God. He asked God to forgive him and 
give him grace to do better. After this he went 
right back to the merchant and told him about 
his mother's counsel ; how sorry he was that he 
had forgotten it ; how he had asked God to for- 
give him and help him to do better, and how he 
had make up his mind to try to do so. "And 
now, sir," said the boy with tears in his eyes, " all 
I ask is that you will just try ?«e." He did try 
him, and never had cause to regret it. 

When George took this course and resolved no 
longer to follow the bad example of his compan- 
ions, he was " taking in the flying jib." 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

HOUSETOPS IN THE EAST. 

HERE is a picture of the top of a house in 
Jerusalem. We read a great deal in the 
Bible about what people in that country were 
accustomed to do on the tops of their houses. We 
shall never understand these parts of the Bible 
unless we get a clear idea of the great difference 
between the tops of the houses in that country and 
in our own. We have so much rain and snow in 
this country that we usually make the roofs of our 
houses pretty steep, that the water which falls on 
them may run off as soon as possible. Flat roofs 
would not answer for our climate. But it is very 
different in the land where the Bible was written. 
The climate there is much drier than ours. The 
tops of their houses are all made flat. With the 
poorer people the roofs of their houses are made in 
this way : beams are laid across the top of the 
walls, about a foot and a half or two feet apart. 
On these a quantity of dried grass, or reeds, or 
brushwood is laid. Over this is a thick layer of 
(208) 



HOUSETOPS IN THE EAST. 211 

earth, and this is covered with a thick coat of clay, 
which is smoothed and pressed down, and then 
hardened by the heat of the sun. A stone roller 
is generally kept on the housetop, which is often 
drawn over it, so as to keep it well pressed down, 
and to close up any cracks that may be in it. 

While we were staying in the village of Baalbek, 
in the northern part of Palestine, a slight fall of 
snow came, and we were greatly amused to see the 
villagers turn out on the tops of their houses with 
shovels, and brooms, to clear off the snow, and 
then draw the rollers over them to make them 
tight, so that the melting snow would not get 
through ! 

But the better class of houses are finished in a 
more solid and substantial manner. Some of 
these have their roofs covered thick with a kind 
of cement which turns solid, and becomes as hard 
as stone. Others are covered over with stone. 
This is the case with the one represented in our 
picture. You can see the square stones which make 
the top of this house. It has a stone wall too 
round the edge of it for safety. The woman that 
you see in the picture is watering some flower- 
pots that stand on the wall. The Jews were 
required, by law, to build such a wall round their 
housetops. We read in Deut. 22 : 8, " When 
thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a 
battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood 



212 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

upon thine house, if any man fall from thence." 
And this law is still in force in that country 
wherever the people make use of these flat house- 
tops. In the cities of Palestine these roofs are a 
great comfort. Most of the houses have no other 
place about them where the people can go to see 
the sun, or get fresh air, or dry their clothes, or 
set out their plants and flowers, or do many other 
things which are important to their health and 
comfort. And not only within the walls of the 
city, but even in the villages these flat housetops 
are very useful. There the farmer suns his wheat 
before sending it to the mill, and the flour when it 
comes back ; and there he dries his figs and raisins, 
and other fruit, in safety both from animals and 
two-legged thieves. 

During a large part of the year the housetop is 
the pleasantest part about the house, especially in 
the morning and evening. While we were staying 
at Beyrout I used to love to go to the housetop of 
our hotel, and sit there in the evening, to catch 
the breeze from the sea, and watch the sun go 
down, and enjoy the fine view of the snow-covered 
mountains of Lebanon in the distance. Multi- 
tudes of people in Syria sleep upon the housetops 
during the summer time. And we find this 
practice spoken of in the Bible. 

In 1 Samuel 9 : 25, 26 we read about the way 
in which Samuel told Saul that God intended him 



HOUSETOPS IN THE EAST. 213 

to be the King of Israel. Saul had set off to try 
and find some of his father's asses which were lost. 
He searched for them a long time but could not 
find them. Then he came to the prophet Samuel 
to inquire of him about them. He little thought 
that while seeking for these lost asses he was to 
find a kingdom. But it was so. And we read 
that Samuel took Saul up to the housetop, when 
he wanted to have a private talk with him, and to 
tell him all that God had said about his being made 
king. And then it seems that Samuel spread his 
bed for him there on the housetop. 

I doubt whether Saul slept much that night, 
although he must have been pretty tired with his 
long journey. Very few men would sleep much, 
just after being told, for the first time, that a 
crown and a kingdom were soon to be theirs. 

In our Saviour's time it was customary when 
anything important was to be made known to pro- 
claim it from the housetop. He said to his 
disciples, " What I tell you in darkness, that speak 
ye in light ; and what ye hear in the ear, that 
preach ye upon the housetops " (Matt. 10 : 27). 
And at the present day when the governor of a city 
or village has anything important to make known, 
it is done in this way. In the evening, when 
the people have returned from their labor in the 
field, the public crier will go up on the flat roof 
of one of the highest houses. Then he will call 



214 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

upon the people to hear, and will publish the law, 
or proclaim the will of his master. 

The housetops were used also as places of wor- 
ship. The prophet speaks to those " that worship 
the host of heaven upon the housetops' 7 (Zeph. 
1 : 5). And in the 10th chapter of Acts we read 
of the apostle Peter, when he was in the city of 
Joppa, lodging " with one Simon a tanner, whose 
house is by the sea side," that he " went up upon 
the housetop to pray about the sixth hour," or 
twelve o'clock at noon. And there he had that 
wonderful vision, which was to take away his 
strong prejudice as a Jew, and prepare him to 
preach the gospel to the Gentiles. 



CHAPTER XXXY. 

SWINGING GRANDPA. 

IT is an interesting sight which this picture pre- 
sents to us. Here we see a venerable-looking 
grandfather having a real good time with his three 
grandchildren. If you look at the smiling, happy 
faces of the little ones, you feel sure they are hav- 
ing a good time with him. 

We see in a moment that, though differing very 
much in their ages, the four people in this group 
understand each other very well, and have great 
enjoyment in being together. We like to see 
young people acting as the children in our picture 
are doing, that is, keeping company with the aged, 
and doing all they can to make them happy. We 
like it for three reasons. Each of these reasons 
begin with the letter P. And so we may call the 
subject of this picture the swinging party and its 
three Ps. 

1. A Pleasant Sight, 

If you go into an orange grove you will often 
find the little buds that are just opening, the flow- 

(217) 



218 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

ers that are in full bloom, and the golden, ripened 
fruit all hanging together on the same tree. It is 
a very pleasant thing to see the buds and the fruit 
so close together. And so it is a pleasant thing to 
see aged people and young people in each other's 
company. 

Sometimes as people grow old they become cross 
and ill-tempered, and then it is no wonder the 
young do not care to be with them. But this 
grandfather in the swing is not one of that kind. 
Just look at his face, and see how kind and good- 
natured he looks ! And when old people are not 
cross, children love to be with them. And then it 
is a pleasant thing for old people and young people 
to be together. I speak from experience here, for 
I am a grandfather with seven grandchildren. 
When my oldest grandson was three or four years 
old, he seemed to think that my chief business in 
life, the thing for which I was sent into the world, 
was to play " horsey " with him. And the first 
thing he would often say when he came to see me 
was, "Come, grandpa, and let's play horsey." 
And so I know I am speaking what is true when 
I say that the sight this picture represents is a 
pleasant sight. 

2. A Proper Sight 

It is a very right and proper thing for the young 
to be respectful and reverent towards aged persons. 
In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus and thirty- 



SWINGING GRANDPA. 219 

second verse, we read these words, "Thou shalt 
rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face 
of the old man, and fear thy God : I am the Lord." 
Here we see that God made a law on purpose to 
lead the young to show kindness, respect and rever- 
ence for aged persons. And when we are doing 
that which helps us on in the way of God's com- 
mandments, we may be very sure that we are doing 
a proper thing. And God not only gives us a 
command on this subject, but sets us an example 
in showing respect for the aged, when he is so 
kind as to say that " The hoary head is a crown 
of glory, if it be found in the way of righteous- 
ness "(Prov. 16:31). 

And now for our third p. The sight which 
our picture represents is, 3. A Profitable Sight. 

I mean by this that if we show respect to the 
aged and seek their company when we are young, 
we shall find it doing us good. The counsel or 
advice that aged persons can give us makes it 
profitable to be in their company. 'When we are 
young, we are like travelers going into a strange 
country. But our aged friends have been through 
that country. They can tell us what are the best 
roads to take, what are the best places at which to 
stop, and what are the dangers to be avoided. 

But God's promise is another thing that makes 
it profitable to hold aged persons in reverence and 
respect. We have seen what God's command is on 



220 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

this subject. And there is a promise connected 
with this and every other command of God. 
David tells us in Ps. 19 : 11, that in keeping his 
commandments there is great reward. And so we 
may take another look at the swinging party with 
their three ps, and say, " Well, no one can deny 
that this picture gives us a view of that which is 
pleasant and proper and profitable." 



mmw^wmmmmmm 




CHAPTER XXXYI. 

LESSONS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 

IT seems as if this cradle had been set out of 
doors on a warm summer day, so that the 
little girl might have a nice sleep in the open air. 
She has had her sleep and has waked up from it, 
feeling comfortable and happy. As she is lying 
still in her cradle a mother hen comes walking by 
with her family of little chickens. She is standing 
near the cradle looking at her little ones, and no 
doubt feeling proud of them. As she stands there 
we may fancy we hear her saying, " Cluck, cluck, 
cluck." "We cannot tell just what this means in 
chicken language. If we could understand it, we 
should perhaps find that this mother hen was 
saying, " Did you ever see such nice little chickens 
as mine are ! " 

The little girl in the cradle hears the clucking 
of the hen. She rises from her pillow and leans 
over the side of the cradle to see what it is that is 
making this noise. There she sees this mother 
hen with her little ones. This is just what our 

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224 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

picture sets before us. We should like to know 
what the girl thinks as she looks at those tiny 
little chickens. But we cannot find this out. 
Now, what lessons may this scene teach us ? There 
are three lessons in natural history that we may 
very well learn from it. 

1 . How weak and helpless babies are ! 

This is true both of baby children and of baby 
chickens. The baby child is a great deal bigger 
than the baby chicken, but it is much more helj> 
less. The baby child cannot walk for months 
after it is born, and has to be carried about in the 
arms of its mother or nurse. But the baby 
chicken can run about as soon as it comes out of its 
shell. The baby child has to be washed, and 
dressed, and fed, and cared for. The baby chicken 
needs no washing or dressing, and it can tell what 
is good for it to eat, and can help to feed itself 
from the very first. The baby child when it gets 
big enough has to go to school, and learn to read 
and write, and to do other things. But the baby 
chicken has no need to go to school. Here we see 
what a great difference there is between young 
children and young chickens. Baby children are 
much more helpless than baby chickens. And the 
reason why God has made this difference between 
them is, that chickens have no minds with which 
to think, and no souls with which to love, and so 
they need no education. But baby children have 



LESSONS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 225 

minds and souls. They are to live forever, and 
they need to be educated. And God has made 
them as helpless as they are on purpose that their 
parents, and nurses, and teachers may have the 
opportunity of teaching them while they are 
young many things which it is very important for 
them to learn. 

2. What good protectors babies have. 

See, there is the mother hen standing by her 
little ones to take care of them. If a dog or a 
cat should come along and try to get at her babies, 
how bravely she would stand up and fight for 
them ! And if she should see a hawk flying 
round and ready to pounce upon her little family, 
then in a moment, as our Saviour so beautifully 
said, we should see how the hen would gather her 
chickens under her wings for their safety and 
protection ! 

And now let us look away from the protector 
of the little chickens to the protector of the little 
child. That mother hen is a good protector for 
her helpless chickens, but think what a protector 
that little child has in her good mother. Think 
how she feeds her little one when it is hungry. 
Think how she carries it in her arms, how she 
works for it and watches over it. Think how 
gladly she gives her time, and strength, and thought, 
and money, and everything she has for the pro- 
tection and comfort of her child. A loving, faith- 



226 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

ful mother is one of the greatest blessings God can 
give to any child. 

Who ran to help me when I fell, 
And would some pretty story tell, 
Or kiss the place to make it well ? 
My mother. 

And can I ever cease to be 
Affectionate and kind to thee, 
Who was so very kind to me ? 
My mother. 

3. How much babies have to grow. 

Just look at one of those baby chickens, and 
then look at the big mother hen. Why she is a 
dozen or twenty times as big as any of them, and 
yet if they live, each of them will grow to be as 
big as she is. 

And so when we see a baby child in its mother's 
arms, we may well think how much it has to grow. 
The baby's body will grow till it gets to be about 
as large as its mother's body, and then it will stop 
growing. But the baby's mind and soul will 
never stop growing. If we are loving and serving 
the blessed Saviour, we shall keep on growing 
wiser and better, not only while we live in this 
world, but after we get to heaven also. We shall 
be equal to the angels there. And what is better 
still than this, we shall be like the glorious Saviour 
himself. 




.A--s^^£r^^fc:c 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



A PLEASANT SUEPEISE. 



THIS little girl in a grain field has taken her 
seat on the grass just outside the grain, to 
gather some of the wild flowers that are blooming 
in their beauty around her. While seated there 
she hears a rustle among the grain. On looking 
up, she sees a rabbit quite near her, with his long 
ears standing up. He is looking at her as if he 
would say, " Pray, who are you ? " She is pleased 
to see him, and stretches out her hands towards 
him to let him know that she would be glad to 
have him come and play with her. We are not 
told whether bunny accepted her invitation or not. 
But, from what we know about wild rabbits, it 
is most likely that he did not accept it. He 
probably looked at her awhile, and then turned 
round and ran away. To see this rabbit must 
have been a pleasant surprise to this little girl. 

No doubt we shall all meet with many surprises 
before another year comes to an end. Some of 
them may be pleasant, and some of them unpleas- 

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230 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

ant. It will depend a good deal upon ourselves 
what sort of surprises we may meet with, as we go 
on through the year. There are a good many pleas- 
ant surprises spoken of in the Bible. Let us look 
at some of these, and see if we can find out how 
to secure for ourselves pleasant surprises. 

1 . Jacob had a pleasant surprise at Bethel. 

He had just started on a long journey. We 
read about it in the 28th chapter of Genesis. He 
was going from his father's home, Beer-sheba, in 
the southern part of Canaan, to make a visit to his 
uncle, Laban. Laban lived in Mesopotamia, the 
country from which Abraham came. Jacob was 
traveling alone, and on foot. Soon after starting 
he had to sleep out in the field all night, at a place 
called Bethel. There he had the famous vision of 
the ladder set up from earth to heaven, with the 
angels of God going up and down on it. And 
then God spoke to him, and gave him this sweet 
promise : " I am with thee, and will keep thee in 
all places whither thou goest, . . . for I will not 
leave thee, until I have done that which I have 
spoken to thee of." 

What a pleasant surprise this must have been to 
Jacob ! And how it must have comforted his 
heart, during all the rest of his journey, to think 
of the sweet words that God had spoken to him ! 

2. And then we may very well remember that 
Samuel had a pleasant surprise at Shiloh. 



A PLEASANT SURPRISE. 231 

That was where old Eli lived, and where the 
Jewish tabernacle was set up. Samuel's mother 
had taken him up there, and had given him to 
Eli the priest, to help him in doing the work that 
had to be done in connection with the worship of 
God in the tabernacle. The lamps had to be 
trimmed every day, and the courts of the taber- 
nacle had to be swept and kept clean. I suppose 
that this was the kind of work that Samuel had to 
do. He could not have been more than seven or 
eight years old when his mother took him up 
there. We read about this interesting story in the 
third chapter of First Samuel. 

It seems that Samuel slept in one of the rooms 
of the tabernacle, that he might always be at hand 
when he was wanted. After falling asleep one 
night he was startled by some one calling his 
name. It was then, as the hymn says, that 

" Little Samuel woke, 

And heard his Maker's voice." 

At first he thought it was Eli who called him, 
and ran to see what was wanted. The call was 
repeated several times. Then Eli knew it was God 
who was calling Samuel. He told him to go back 
once more, and when the call came again to say, 
" Speak, Lord ; for thy servant heareth." He did 
so, and then for the first time in his life he heard 
God speaking to him. What a pleasant surprise 



232 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

that must have been to Samuel ! The message 
that he gave him to deliver to his old friend was a 
sad one indeed. There was nothing pleasant in 
that. But what God said to the lad was pleasant. 
Samuel did not know the Lord before. We may 
say he was converted on that night. Then he first 
began really to love God. After that he served 
him faithfully all his days. He would never 
forget that night. It was indeed a pleasant sur- 
prise to him. As we think of it, each of us may 

say: 

" If God would speak to me, 
And say he was my friend, 
How happy I should be ! 

Oh how would I attend ! 
The smallest sin I then should fear, 
If God Almighty were so near." 

3. And then, Zacchceus had a pleasant surprise 
in the sycamore tree. 

We read about this in Luke 19 : 1-10. Zac- 
chseus had heard a great deal about Jesus, and had 
a great desire to see him. One day, Jesus was 
coming to Jericho, where Zaechseus lived, and he 
resolved to try and see him. But he was a little 
man, and in a great crowd would not be able to see 
much. The old proverb says, " Where there's a 
will there's a way," and so it was here. Zac- 
chceus ran ahead of the crowd, and climbed up into 
a sycamore tree by the roadside. He expected 
nothing more than just to get one good look at this 



A PLEASANT SURPRISE. 233 

wonderful man. The crowd is coming along. 
He waits patiently for it. Presently his eye rests 
on the G-reat Teacher. He watches him earnestly 
as he comes nearer. Now Jesus reaches the tree. 
He stops. He looks up. He speaks to the little 
man and says, " Zacchseus, make haste, and come 
down ; for to-day I must abide at thy house." 
What a pleasant surprise to Zacehseus that was ! 
How quickly he came down ! How eagerly he 
ran home ! How gladly he received the blessed 
Saviour into his house ! 

Loving and serving Jesus will certainly bring 
to us many a pleasant surprise. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

YOUNG SAILORS, AND WHAT THEY NEED. 

HERE is a picture of two little boys who are 
playing sailors. They have a big tub full 
of water to represent the ocean. They have a 
little boat which they have rigged up to represent 
the ships that sail over the ocean ; and they are 
trying to make their boat go. The full, rounded 
cheeks of the younger boy show that he is doing 
all he can to send the boat along, with the help of 
his own breath. The large boy has a pair of 
bellows in his hands, which he is using for the 
same purpose. These boys, in their play, may 
teach us a good lesson. We are all sailors, in one 
sense. Our life is like the ocean. We all have to 
sail over this ocean. And when we consider what 
kind of a wind sailors need to enable them to get 
well through with their voyage, we find that we 
need something of the same kind. 

In the Bible the Holy Spirit is compared to the 
wind (John 3:8; Ezek. 37 : 9-13). And if we 
compare ourselves to sailors on the sea of life, we 

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YOUNG SAILORS, AND WHAT THEY NEED. 237 

shall find, in the help which the Spirit gives, just 
what sailors need in the kind of wind required 
to carry them safely to the end of their voyage. 

1. Now, for one thing, sailors need a fair v-ind. 

A fair wind is one that blows from behind 
the vessel. It will keep her sails all full, and 
send her straight on her way towards the port for 
which she is sailing. Sometimes sailors meet with 
head winds. Then they can make no progress. 
Sometimes they have side winds, which blow them 
out of their proper course. But what sailors 
desire above all things to have is a fair wind. 
Then they can get on nicely. 

And if we have the help of the Holy Spirit, in 
trying to serve God, it will just be to us what a 
fair wind is to the sailor. This blessed Spirit can 
in all things direct and rule our hearts. This is 
the best kind of help that we can have. This 
will keep us from doing wrong, and lead us to 
do right. This will enable us, as the apostle says, 
to " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour/ 7 If we have this help, we 
shall be like ships at sea with a fair wind, which 
is carrying them right on to the end of their 
voyage. One thing that sailors need is a fair 
wind. 

2. But, in the next place, sailors need a strong 
wind. 

Sometimes there are powerful currents in the 



238 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

ocean, and when a ship meets with one of these a 
strong wind is needed, in order to resist that cur- 
rent and make headway against it. The tempta- 
tions that we meet with in our daily lives are very 
much like the currents that sailors find in the 
ocean. Unless the sailor has a strong wind these 
currents will carry him out of his course. And 
unless we have the help we need, we shall be over- 
come by these temptations. There is Joseph in 
the house of Potiphar. When tempted to do " a 
great wickedness, and sin against God," he was 
like a ship at sea meeting a strong current. But 
he had the Spirit of God to help him. This en- 
abled him to resist that temptation, and go right 
on against the current. 

And if he had not done this he never would have 
become " the governor of all the land of Egypt." 
And what the Spirit did for Joseph he will do for 
you and me, and all of us. And we can sail on 
against every wrong current, if we only have the 
strong wind of the Spirit's help. 

3. But then sailors need a steady wind. 
I mean by this a wind that will keep blowing all 
the time. In some parts of the ocean there are what 
are called " trade-winds." These keep on blowing 
day and night for weeks and months together. 
And sailors have a good time when they get into 
these trade winds. Then they just spread their 
sails, and away they go. 



YOUNG SAILORS, AND WHAT THEY NEED. 239 

And if we compare the Holy Spirit to this wind, 
it is a steady wind like the trade-winds. He can 
be with us at all times, and in all places. He 
never gets tired of helping. He promises that he 
will " never leave us nor forsake us." And if it 
is true that this is the way in which he helps his 
people, then, when we compare the Spirit to the 
wind, we may well say that this is a steady wind. 
And if we are only careful to get the help of God's 
blessed Spirit in our efforts to serve him, then we 
shall have all that sailors need to make their 
voyage successful : we shall have a fair wind, a 
strong wind, and a steady wind. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE POWER OF KINDNESS. 

A PICTURE like this of a girl and her pet 
-£^- pussy may teach us useful lessons. The 
lesson we may regard it as teaching us is, The Power 
of Kindness. 

The best example of kindness that this world 
ever saw was seen in Jesus our blessed Saviour. 
It was the kindness of his heart that brought him 
down from heaven, li to seek and to save the lost." 
And " when Jesus was seen among men," it was 
this kindness in his heart which led him to " go 
about doing good." This led him to heal the sick, 
to open the eyes of the blind, to make the deaf 
hear, and the lame walk, and the dumb speak ; to 
cast out devils, and to raise the dead. And when 
we become his servants, one of his commandments 
to us is, " Be ye kind one to another " (Eph. 4 : 
32). And, if we learn the lesson of kindness 
which Jesus teaches us, we shall see the power 
which it exercises in three ways. 

1. The first way in which kindness will show 
its power, will be in making us hole well. 
(240) 



THE POWER OF KINDNESS. 243 

Just take a peep at the little girl in our picture. 
Certainly she looks well. I mean by this that she 
has a very pretty or beautiful appearance. See 
what a pleasant smile is on her lips ! See how 
sweet and cheerful her whole face looks ! See how 
tenderly her eyes are looking down on pussy. 
AY hen you meet a person with a face like this, you 
can tell in a moment that that person has a kind 
heart. Pussy knows that the little girl who is 
holding her in her arms has a kind heart. And 
there is nothing like this to make the face look 
well. 

Some people try to make their faces look pretty 
by using paint and ornaments outside. But the best 
way to make our faces look beautiful, is to paint 
them from the inside. I mean by this that when 
we have kind, and gentle, and loving feelings in 
our hearts, our faces will show it and will make 
them look more pleasing than anything else can do. 

The Handsome Soul. — A little boy was coasting 
down hill one winter's day. In gliding over the 
pavement he ran against a lady who was passing 
by, and tore her dress. Feeling ashamed and 
sorry for what he had done, he jumped up and 
made an apology. 

" Never mind, my little man," said the lady, U I 
know you didn't mean to do it. There is not 
much harm done. A few stitches will repair it." 
So she smiled at him and went on her way. 



244 FIVE-MINUTE TALltS. 

The boy looked after her with surprise, and 
exclaimed, " Oh ! isn't she a beauty ? " 

" If you call her a beauty, you sha'n't choose a 
wife for me," said one of his companions ; " why 
her face looks old and wrinkled." 

" Well, she's got a handsome soul, anyhow," 
said the boy. And he was right. It was the 
power of kindness in that good lady's heart that 
made her face look so well. 

2. And then, in the second place, the power of 
kindness is seen in making us feel well. 

The true secret of being happy ourselves, is to 
try and make others happy. No one ever had 
such happiness in himself as Jesus our Saviour 
has. When he endured the shame and suffering 
of the cross, we are told that he did it " for the 
joy that was set before him " (Heb. 12 : 2). This 
means the joy he would feel in showing kindness 
to poor sinners in saving their souls from death. 
And he prayed that his people might have his joy 
fulfilled in themselves. This means that they 
should be made happy by showing kindness to 
others, and by trying to do them good. The 
kindest persons are always the most happy. And 
if we really try to be kind to all about us, and to 
be doing them good, we shall find that this is the 
best way to make us happy. And through our 
happiness we shall learn that kindness has the 
power to make us feel well. 



THE POWER OF KIXDNESS. 245 

3. And then the third way in which kindness 
will show its power, is in making us do well. 

We see this illustrated in our picture. There is 
kindness in the heart of this little girl, and it is 
this which leads her to treat her pussy so gently, 
and try to make her feel comfortable and happy. 
A good minister in England used to say, that " he 
would not give much for any man's religion unless 
his cat and dog were the better for it." 

"When we become true Christians our hearts 
will be filled with love to God. This will lead us 
to love all God's creatures, and to be kind to 
them. This idea is beautifully expressed in the 
book of Job, when he says of the person who is 
filled with this love, " Thou shalt be in league 
with the stones of the field : and the beasts of the 
field shall be at peace with thee " (Job. 5 : 23). 
And so we see how true it is that kindness shows 
its power in making us look well, feel well, and do 
well. 



CHAPTER XL. 

THANKSGIVING FOR DAILY FOOD. 

THESE two children have come home late from 
school. They are having their dinner by 
themselves, and their mother, as she waits upon 
tliem, is having a nice little talk with them about 
" Thanksgiving for Daily Food." 

I cannot tell just what this good mother said to 
her children on this subject, but it is easy enough 
to think of four good reasons why we should thank 
God for the food we eat every day. 

1. One reason why we ought to give thanks to 
God for our food, before we eat it, is because God 
gives it to us. 

Suppose that God should send an angel down 
from heaven to bring us our food every day, then 
we should all admit that God gave us our daily 
bread. Or suppose that, instead of an angel, God 
should send ravens to bring us " bread and flesh 
in the morning, and bread and flesh in the even- 
ing," as they did to Elijah at the brook Cherith, 
why then we should admit too that it was God who 

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THANKSGIVING FOR DAILY FOOD. 249 

gave us our daily food. Or suppose that God 
should send our food to us every night as he sent 
the manna to the Israelites, by miracle, then we 
should be obliged to admit that God gave us this 
food. 

But it is not in any of these ways that God 
sends us food. He sends the rain, and the dew, 
and the sunshine. These make the grass, and the 
grain, and the fruits grow from which we get our 
food. And then he gives our parents health and 
strength to work and get money to buy for us the 
food we need. And when we think of this we 
know that it is just as true that God gives us our 
daily food, as if it came to us by an angel, or by 
ravens, or by miracle. 

And if God gives us all the food we have, this 
is a good reason why we should thank him for it. 

2. Another reason why we should thank God 
for our food is because the Bible teaches us to do so. 

In one place we are told, " In every thing give 
thanks " (1 Thess. 5:18). But we cannot obey 
this command of God unless we thank him for our 
daily food. And then there is another place in 
which the Bible teaches us to do this particular 
thing. In 1 Cor. 10 : 31, the Apostle Paul says, 
" Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever 
ye do, do all to the glory of God." We eat and 
drink to the glory of God when we thank him for 
giving us what we have to eat and drink. But if 



250 FIVE-3IINUTE TALKS. 

we eat or drink without thanking him, we cannot 
do it to the glory of God. It is a good reason 
therefore why we should thank God for our daily 
food, to know that the Bible teaches us to do so. 

3. But a third reason why we should do this is 
because Jesus did so. 

What a beautiful illustration we have of this in 
Matt. 14:19! Here we read: "And he com- 
manded the multitude to sit down on the grass, 
and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and 
looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and 
gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples 
to the multitude." And there are nine or ten 
places mentioned in the Gospel, where Jesus did 
the same thing. This shows us that it was his 
habit or custom. He always gave thanks to his 
Father in heaven for his daily food before he ate 
of it. And one of the things that Jesus came on 
earth to do, was to teach us how to live. He set 
us an example, and our duty is to tread in the 
blessed steps of his most holy life. To be a 
Christian is to be like Jesus. It is to follow his 
example; to have the same mind that was also 
in Christ Jesus. It is an excellent reason why 
we should thank God for our daily food, to say 
that Jesus did so. 

4. And then the fourth reason why we should 
thank God for our daily food is because it is right. 

Why, if we ask a person to give us a pin, and 



THANKSGIVING FOR DAILY FOOD. 251 

the pin is given, we ought to say " Thank you," 
politely, and every right feeling should lead us to 
do this. "We are taught to ask God every day to 
" give us this day our daily bread," and when God 
gives us that bread, surely it is right and proper 
that we should thank him for it ! I saw a story 
the other day which comes in very nicely here, to 
show how right it is to thank God for our food. 

An elderly person who lived iu the country went 
to a wedding of a friend in the city. At the din- 
ner, after the wedding, he sat by some gay young 
men. Before beginning to eat, he paused a mo- 
ment or two, to offer up his silent thanksgiving to 
God for the food he was about to eat. One of the 
young men saw it, and thought he would have 
some fun over the old gentleman. So he said, 
" Well, my old friend, I suppose all the people in 
your house say prayers over their food." 

The good farmer looked at him for a moment, 
and then quietly said, ."Xo, sir, we have some 
calves in our barn : I feed them every day ; but I 
never hear them say any prayers over their food ! " 
This turned the laugh on the young man, who had 
nothing more to say. It served him right. But 
let us always remember these four good reasons 
why we should thank God for our daily food. We 
ought to do it because God gives us our food, be- 
cause the Bible teaches us to do it, because Jesus did 
it, and because it is right. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

THE UNEXPECTED DANGER. 

HERE is a picture of a little boy who is meet- 
ing with a danger which he little expected. 
His mother sent him to the spring-house to get a 
pitcher of milk. He went. He filled the pitcher 
with milk and was on his way back, when he met 
with an unexpected danger. 

Two dogs came up to him, showing by their 
looks that they would like to have a little of the 
milk in his pitcher. One of them jumped up to 
him and looked him earnestly in the face, as if he 
would say, " Give me some of that ? " The little 
fellow was frightened, and leaned against the fence. 
In holding the pitcher up to keep it away from the 
dog, some of the milk was spilled, and it would no 
doubt all have been lost if it had not been for a 
friend of the boy, who saw what was going on. 
He came up and drove the dogs away ; and so the 
little fellow escaped from the danger which threat- 
ened him, and was able to carry the milk safely to 
his mother 

(252) 



THE UNEXPECTED DANGER. 255 

We may use this little incident for two things ; 
one is to teach a lesson, the other is to start a 
question. 

1. The lesson thus taught is this, that there is 
danger everywhere. 

This little boy did not expect any danger as he 
carried the pitcher of milk from the spring-house 
to his mother. But he found it there. And so it 
is with us. When we go from home to school, or 
on an errand, we never can tell what may happen 
to us before we return. But it is not only when 
we are away from home that danger may meet us. 
We may reach home safely and find danger even 
there. 

I remember hearing of a gentleman who had 
been a great traveler. He got through his long 
journeys, and returned home without meeting with 
any accident. But the day after his return, in 
going rapidly along one of the walks in his own 
garden, he stumbled over a pebble-stone and fell, 
and broke his leg. 

I have read of another who had been all round 
the world. He had met with storms at sea, with 
earthquakes, and pestilences on land, and yet had 
passed safely through them all. But, while eating 
his first meal after returning home, something went 
wrong in his throat and choked him. This led 
some one to write these two lines, which we see are 
true • 



256 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

'• The earthquake may be made to spare 
The man who's strangled by a hair." 

And so let us never forget this lesson, there is 
danger everywhere. 

But there is another thing for which we may use 
the incident illustrated in our picture. 

2. This is to start a question. The question thus 
started is this, How may we best meet this danger f 

The answer is a very simple one, it is by asking 
God our Saviour to take care of us. And there 
are two reasons why we are safe from danger if 
Jesus takes care of us. One reason is, that he 
knows all about the danger before it comes. If we 
are walking down the street, we cannot tell whom 
we shall meet as we turn round the next corner. 
But Jesus knows. 

You remember how it was on the night in which 
he was betrayed. When he sent two of his disci- 
ples to find a room in which they might eat the 
passover, he told them that as they entered the city 
they would meet a man "bearing a pitcher of 
water," and that he would show them such a room 
as they needed. This shows us how well Jesus 
knows everything, even before it happens. And 
so, though we may know nothing of the danger 
that is before us, yet Jesus knows all about it. 
And this is a good reason why we should pray to 
him every morning, and ask him to take care of 
us all through the day. 



THE UNEXPECTED DANGER. '257 

And then there is another reason why we should 
do this. Jesus not only knows about the danger, 
but he is always able to save us from it. To know 
about a danger w^ill do us little good, unless we 
can find out some way to escape it. If you and I 
were at sea, and we knew that the ship, in which 
we were sailing, would sink in an hour or two, 
that would do us no good unless there was a life- 
boat at hand, which we could make ready to get 
into before the ship went down. But in every 
danger Jesus is able to help and deliver us. The 
Bible tells us that he is "able to save unto the 
uttermost." 

Then let us remember that though there is danger 
everywhere, yet if we ask Jesus to take care of us 
we shall always be safe, because he knows of the 
danger before it comes, and he can save us when it 
comes. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

WILLIAM PENN. 

THE two hundredth anniversary of William 
Penn's coming to America and founding 
the State of Pennsylvania and the city of Phila- 
delphia was celebrated during the year 1882. 
And so, as we look at the picture before us, we 
may imagine ourselves to be making a pilgrimage 
to the grave in which the remains of this great 
and good man are resting. One who has visited 
the spot thus speaks of it : " The grave is in the 
grassy plot which surrounds the little meeting- 
house near Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. 
The Friends are not in the habit of putting head- 
stones over the graves in which their loved ones are 
buried. For a long time the grave of Penn had 
no stone to mark it ; but so many strangers came 
to visit it that some years ago those who had it in 
charge agreed to put up head-stones to the graves 
of the Penn family." The second grave on the 
left-hand side of our picture has the name of 
William Penn on it. There is only a little mound, 
(258) 



WILLIAM PENN. 



261 



about the height of a common grave, with the 
plain head-stone which bears his honored name. 




■k^ MS 



This is all that marks the spot where the remains 
of this good man are resting. 

William Penn was a man of peace. He tried 



262 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

to promote peace wherever he went. And there 
were three ways in which he did this ; and we 
may all imitate his example in these things. 

1. One way in which he promoted peace was by 
having peaceful feelings. 

He tried to overcome all anger and malice, and 
to have " the same mind that was in Christ Jesus." 
And we must try to do the same if we wish to be 
followers of " the Prince of peace." Here is an 
illustration of what I mean. 

A little boy came to his mother one morning 
with a broken toy, and begged her to mend it. It 
was a beautiful new toy, and the little fellow's 
heart was set on it. His lips quivered and his 
eyes were full of tears as he placed the broken toy 
in his mother's hands. "I'll try to mend it, 
darling," said his mother, " but I'm afraid I can't 
do it." He watched her anxiously for awhile, and 
then, wiping away the tears with the back of 
his hand, said cheerfully, " Never mind, mamma. 
If you can't do it, I'll be just as happy without 
it." 

This was beautiful. That little fellow had 
peaceful feelings indeed. 

2. And then the second Avay in which William 
Penn showed that he was a man of peace was by 
using peaceful words. 

Like his blessed Master, " when he was reviled 
he reviled not again." Kind, gentle, loving words 



WILLIAM PENN. 263 

were always on his lips. And if we try to follow 
his example in this respect, we shall be able 
wherever we are to promote "peace on earth" 
and make those about us happy. The following 
incident shows us how this may be done. 

One day, in suddenly turning the corner of a 
crowded street in the city, a young lady ran with 
force against a little ragged beggar boy and almost 
knocked him down. Stopping as soon she could, she 
turned and said very kindly to the boy, " I beg 
your pardon, my little fellow. I'm very sorry 
that I ran against you." The poor boy was 
astonished. He looked at her for a moment with 
surprise, and then, taking off his torn cap, he made 
a low bow, and said, while a bright smile spread itself 
all over his face, " You can hev my parding, Miss, 
and welcome. And the next time you may run 
agin me and knock me clean down, and I won't 
say a word." After the lady has passed on he 
turned to his companion and said, " I say, Jim, 
it's the first time I ever had any one ask my 
parding, and it kind o' took me off my feet." 

How happy that poor boy was made by the 
gentle, peaceful words of that kind lady ! He 
never would forget them as long as he lived. 

3. And then there was one other way in which 
William Penn showed himself to be a man of 
peace, and that was by his peaceful actions. 

We see this beautifully illustrated in the cele- 



264 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

brated treaty which he made with the Indians under 
the famous elm tree that used to stand in Kensing- 
ton, Philadelphia. Instead of fighting the In- 
dians and taking their land from them by violence, 
he bought it of them in a way that was perfectly 
satisfactory to them, and which made them his 
warm friends as long as they lived. And the best 
way for us to show our respect for this good man 
is in trying to follow his example, by performing 
peaceful actions as he did. Here are two nice 
illustrations of what I mean. One may be called 
The Seci'et of Happiness. 

" Mother," said little Minnie, one day, " I've 
learned how to be happy, very happy." 

"Have you, my dear? Well, tell me the 
secret." 

"Why, it's by forgetting myself, and always 
trying to make those about me happy." 

This is a secret worth knowing. The other story 
may be called Playing Like a Christian. 

There were two little children, a boy and a girl, 
who were cousins. They lived near each other, 
and often played together. They both went to the 
same church and Sabbath-school. They learned 
to love the blessed Saviour, and became Christians 
about the same time. 

One day the little boy came to his mother, and 
said, " Mother, I'm sure that Cousin Emma is a 
Christian." 



WILLIAM PENN. 265 

" And what makes you feel so sure about it ? " 
" Why, because she plays like a Christian." 
" Plays like a Christian ! What do you mean 
by that ? " asked his mother. 

" Why, you see," said the little fellow, " she 
used to be very selfish. If she didn't have her 
own way in everything, she would get cross, and 
say, i I won't play with you ; you are an ugly 
little boy.' But now it's very different. Why, if 
you take away everything she's got, she never gets 
angry ; and so I'm sure she is a Christian." 

We may all learn a lesson from this little girl. 
Her peaceful actions are worthy of imitation. 

And so let us try to follow the example of 
William Penn, the man of peace — by seeking to 
have peaceful feelings, by speaking peaceful words, 
and by doing peaceful actions. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN HARD TIMES. 

THIS picture may well represent Christmas to 
us. It is the picture of a little girl. We 
see also the green, glossy leaves of the beautiful 
holly bush. The holly leaves always make us 
think of Christmas. 

And then if we look at this little girl herself, 
she makes us think of Christmas. Take a peep at 
her. Does she not look as if she had just come 
away from the Christmas tree ? It seems as if she 
were looking at that tree and wondering about it. 
She has heard about Jonah's gourd that grew up, 
as it were, in a night, and she may perhaps be 
thinking that this Christmas tree must belong to 
the same vegetable family. At any rate, she thinks 
it certainly has the same power of coming up very 
rapidly. For like that famous gourd, this tree 
came up in a night. When she went to bed on 
the night before Christmas, she was very sure there 
was no such tree in any corner of the nursery. 
But when she got up early on Christmas morning, 
(266) 



A HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN HARD TIMES. 269 

there it was — a full grown tree. Its trunk and its 
branches and its leaves are all perfect. It has a 
wonderful variety of blossoms and flowers, such as 
are never found on any other tree than this won- 
derful Christmas tree. 

And then when you come to look at its fruit, it 
is more wonderful still. We read in the New 
Testament about a wonderful tree called " the tree 
of life," that the apostle John saw growing in the 
New Jerusalem. It was on the banks of the river 
that runs through that glorious, golden city. We 
have an account of this tree in Revelation 22 : 2. 
We are told that it bore " twelve manner of fruits." 
But' in regard to the number of different fruits that 
it bears, this Christmas tree exceeds even the tree 
of life. I have known Christmas trees that bore 
fifteen or twenty different kinds of fruit. Yes, and 
even more than that. 

Let us take another look at this little girl now, 
and see how many kinds of fruit she has gathered 
from the Christmas tree. There in her left arm 
she holds a very good specimen of the doll- fruit. 
On her right arm she has a sample of the grace- 
hoop-fruit. Back of this, close into her bosom ? 
she had a nice specimen of the ball-fruit. And 
then, what is that square thing under the grace- 
hoops ? At first I thought it must be a drawing 
slate. But it is too thick for a slate. I think it 
must be a box of blocks. Well, then, if this is so, 



270 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

we have here a nice specimen of the box-fruit. 
And here we have one, two, three, four different 
kinds of fruit from the Christmas tree that this 
little girl has. Certainly she has enough, by God's 
blessing, to make for her " a merry Christmas and 
a happy New YearP 

But these are " hard times " that we are living 
in. Some Christmas trees may not bear as much 
fruit this year as they have borne in other years. 
Well, suppose this is so ; here are three ways of 
having " a happy Christmas " even is these " hard 
times." 

One way is by being thankful for what we have. 

Those of us who have the least of earthly good 
things, still have more than Ave deserve. And so 
we may well be thankful for what we have. This 
will be one way of making for us " a happy Christ- 
mas." 

A second way of doing this is by trying to make 
some one else happy. If w T e have only a crust of 
bread to eat, yet if we share that crust with an- 
other who has none, what is left will taste sweeter 
and will do us more good than if we were to eat it 
all ourselves. This is what Solomon means when 
he says, " There is that scattereth, and yet increas- 
ed." Giving is God's rule for getting. Doing 
good is the best way of getting good. 

And then the third way is to seek more of God's 
blessing. Solomon says, " The blessing of the Lord, 



A SAPPY CHRISTMAS IN HARD TIMES. 271 

it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." 
He means to say that this blessing will do for us 
what gold and silver cannot do ; it will make us 
happy. A person who was very rich was happy 
with his riches. Afterwards he became very poor, 
but still seemed as happy as when he was rich. 
Some one asked him to explain how this was. 
This was his answer : " When I was rich I enjoyed 
God in all things, and that made me happy. But 
now, when I am poor, I enjoy all things in God, 
and this makes me happy too." 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

SUMMER NOON. 

IT is an interesting view of " summer noon ?? 
which this picture gives us. Here we see a 
number of cows. They have found their way into 
the cool water of a running stream, and are having 
a good time, as the noontide hour, with its oppres- 
sive heat, passes slowly away. 

And there are three things which these cows 
need for their comfort as they stand waiting in 
patience there. They need shade from the scorch- 
ing beams of the sun, and they find it in the great 
tree which spreads its sheltering branches over 
them. They are thirsty, and need water to quench 
their thirst ; they are oppressed by the heat, and 
need water to cool their suffering limbs ; but they 
find both of these wants supplied by the cooling 
stream in whose gently-flowing waters they are 
standing. Now take a good look at this picture, 
and see what a beautiful illustration it affords of 
the kind way in which God provides for the wants 
of all his creatures. 
(272) 



SUMMER NOON. 275 

And so we may take this picture as illustrating 
for us the sweet promise that we find in the 19th 
verse of the 4th chapter of the Epistle to the Phi- 
lippians. Here we read these precious words : 
" My God shall supply all your need according to 
his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." The promise 
of such supply for everything we can need is very 
comforting. Let us look for a few moments at 
three things about this supply. 

1. The first thing to notice about it is its cer- 
tainty : " My God shall supply/ 7 etc. The as- 
surance of this supply rests on the promise of God, 
and that is just the most certain of all things. 
How beautifully Jesus spoke of the certainty 
which marks his promises when he said, " Heaven 
and earth shall pass away : but my words shall not 
pass away " (Luke 21 : 33). And so, because God 
has promised this supply, we may be sure that it 
is certain. Here are two nice illustrations of the 
effect which a simple belief in the certainty of this 
supply should have upon us. 

(1) The first of these may be headed, "He Says 
He WHIP 

A little boy, about twelve years old, had lost his 
mother. She had been a good Christian woman, 
and had taught him faithfully to trust in God and 
feel sure that he would take care of him. He was 
employed to sweep the crossing of one of the 
crowded streets in the city where he lived. Here 



276 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

he did his work faithfully and with a bright and 
cheerful spirit. 

One day a person who knew something of his 
history stopped in passing by to have a little talk 
with him. 

" Well, Charley/' said he, " how do you expect 
to get along now you have got no mother ? " 

" Well, mother told me to be honest and indus- 
trious and to trust in God to take care of me, and 
that's just what I am trying to do." 

" Oh ! but, Charley," said his friend, " you know 
that God is in heaven, and he has so many things 
to attend to. How can you expect him to take 
care of you ? " 

" Well," said Charley, " I only know that lie 
says he will, and that's enough for me." 

That little boy felt sure that the supply he was 
looking for was a certain supply. 

(2) " Dem Supposes." 

This story is about a poor colored woman, whose 
name was Nancy. She supported herself by wash- 
ing, and was very poor ; but still she was always 
cheerful and happy. 

One day a Christian man, who had never learned 
to have proper trust in God, and was always 
worrying about the future, stopped to talk with 
her. 

" Ah, Nancy," said he, " how can you sing away 
and always be so happy. I should think that 



SUMMER NOON, 211 

when you looked forward to the future it would 
take away all your happiness. Suppose, for in- 
stance, that you should be sick and not able to 




work. What would become of you ? Or suppose 
that your present employers should move away, 
and no one else would give you any work to do ; 
or suppose — " 



278 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

" Flease stop dar ! " cried Nancy. " Massa, I 
neber supposes. De Lord is my Shepherd, and I 
knows I shall not want. And, honey," she added 
to her gloomy friend, ".it's jus' dem supposes as is 
making you so mis'ble. You orter to gib dem all 
up, and jus' trus ? in de Lord." 

This is true. And that poor woman found com- 
fort in thinking of the certainty of the supply 
which God promises to his children. 

2. In the next place this promised supply is 
abundant as well as certain. The apostle says, 
" My God shall supply all your need." God does 
not promise to give us all that we may desire 
to have. We may wish for many things which he 
knows it would not be well for us to have. These 
he will not give us. David says, " No good thing 
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly " 
(Ps. 84 : 11). But the "good thing" here spoken 
of means only that which God knows will be use- 
ful to us and will be likely to do us good at our 
latter end. And when we find that all our need 
is supplied we may well rejoice and be glad. Here 
is a good illustration of this point of our subject. 

We may call it " The Happiest Man You Ever 
Saw." 

One day, during the late war, as the chaplain of 
a hospital was walking through the wards, a 
wounded soldier said to him, "Are you the chap- 
lain of this hospital, sir ? " 



SUMMER NOON. 279 

"I am, sir, and I shall be glad to serve you." 

" Oh, I'm so glad we have a chaplain here ! I'm 
the happiest man you ever saw/' said the soldier, 
and his face was all lighted up with joy. 

" How can that be," said the chaplain, " when 
you have lost your leg, and — " 

" No matter about my leg," was his reply. " I 
shall have them both in heaven. I tell you I'm 
the happiest man you ever saw." And his heart 
seemed to leap with gladness. 

"Well, what makes you happy," asked the 
chaplain. 

" I will tell you," he said. "As we were going 
into battle I said to myself, ' This is serious work/ 
So I prayed God to spare my life and pardon my 
sins, or, if I should be killed to take me to heaven. 
Presently a shell struck my leg below the knee, 
and I just lay still and prayed. I was left on the 
battle-field all night, but I lay still and prayed. 
Oh, chaplain, that was the happiest night of my 
life ! " And again his face lighted up with joy. 

" But how could you be happy under such cir- 
cumstances ? " asked the chaplain. 

li Oh, I just prayed, and Christ seemed to come 
and stand by my side all night to comfort me ! I 
felt sure that my sins were all pardoned and that I 
was going straight to heaven. It's twelve days 
since the battle took place, but still Tm the happiest 
man you ever saw." 



280 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

Now surely all that man's need was supplied. 
He felt that the supply was abundant. It left him 
nothing else to ask for. 

3. And then the supply which God promises is 
not only a certain supply and an abundant supply, 
but it is also a kind supply. We see this when 
we think of the channel through which this supply 
comes. It is by Christ Jesus. This supply is 
left in his hands to give it to his people. It could 
not be in better hands. He is so loving and gentle 
and kind. We may feel perfectly sure that what 
he gives will be kindly given. The words he 
spoke when on earth were words of kindness. The 
works he performed were works of kindness. 
And when our need is all supplied by Christ 
Jesus we may be sure it will be kindly supplied. 

Now let us take another look at our picture : and 
when we see how well our Father in heaven has 
supplied the need of those cattle we may feel satis- 
fied that he will supply our need ; and when we 
think of the supply which he promises we may well 
speak of it as a certain supply, an abundant sup- 
ply, and a hind supply. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL. 

THIS picture represents a man and his two 
daughters leaving old Scotland, where they 
had lived all their days, to seek a home in this our 
western land. In the distance we see the ship, 
lying at anchor, in which they are to make their 
voyage. We see them in a boat, which is carrying 
them to the ship. They are looking over the stern 
of the boat, and gazing sadly and sorrowfully at 
their dear native land, which they are now leaving, 
never expecting to see it again. This is a very try- 
ing experience to pass through. Many persons 
who have gone through it remember well the pain 
with which it wrung their hearts and the tears 
with which it filled their eyes. This is a farewell, 
however, which most of our readers have never 
had occasion to understand. They have never left 
the land of their birth to go to a new country. 

But yet we all have some occasions on which we 
are called upon to say the word farewell. We say 
it to our friends when we have to separate from 

(283) 



284 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

them. This year will soon pass away, and we 
shall all have to say farewell to it ; and when we 
reach the point when we have to say this to the old 
year, how should we feel ? I wish to speak of two 
feelings that we should have in saying farewell to 
an old year. 

1. For one thing we should have a feeling of 
penitence in our hearts as we say farewell to the 
passing year. 

The close of the year is always a time when 
good, honest business people try to find out how 
much they owe to others, and to see if they can 
settle their accounts. This is right and proper. 
And if it is right to act thus towards our fellow- 
creatures, surely it is still more proper to act thus 
towards our God. We are all in debt to him. 
Every bad word we have spoken, every sinful act 
we have done, every wrong thought or feeling or 
desire we have had through all this year, is written 
down in God's book as a debt that we owe to him. 
What a long account against us there must be in 
that book ! Surely when we think of our debt to 
God it should make us feel sorrowful. It should 
give us the feeling of penitence. And certainly 
the close of the year is a good time to attend to 
this matter. We should try to get our account 
with God squared up and our debts to him all paid 
before the year closes. 

But how is this to be done ? Like the man in 



THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL. 28o 

the parable, we have nothing to pay, though we 
owe so much. Then what shall we do? Who 
can pay our debts for us ? Jesus is the only one 
who can do this. If Ave come to him in prayer, 
if we tell him we are really sorry for our sins of 
the past year, and ask him to forgive them, he will 
do it. He will settle our accounts with God for 
us. Everything written against us in God's book 
he will blot out. Then we shall go out of the old 
year with our sins all pardoned and our souls at 
peace with God ; and this will give us real pleasure 
as we say to the closing year farewell. 

2. But then, in saying this to the old year, ice 
should have in our hearts the feeling of grati- 
tude to God for all his mercies, as well as peni- 
tence for our sins. 

David says that God's mercies are new every 
morning. Did you ever try to count up God's 
mercies to you for a year ? Let me give you a 
boy's experience in this matter. The story may 
be called "A Year's Mercies." 

A little fellow, who was very clever at figures, 
had heard so much about the goodness of God that 
he thought he would try to reckon up how many 
mercies he received in a year. So he took his slate 
and pencil and began to set them down. " Let me 
see," said he, "there are 365 days in a year, so I 
must put down 365 mercies ; but then I get more 
than one mercy a day. Why, every hour brings 



286 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

some mercy ; so I must multiply the 365 days by 
24, the number of hours in a day. This makes 
8760 mercies for the year. But then God's mer- 



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cies come oftener than once an hour. Why, every 
minute brings a mercy ; and if I multiply God's 
hourly mercies by 60, the number of minutes in 



THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL. 287 

an hour, it makes my mercies for the year more 
than half a million. What a great number this 
is ! But let me count my greater mercies/' said 
the little fellow. "There are my dear father and 
mother, who have been spared to me all these years. 
Two big marks for them. Then one for health 
preserved, another for food, another for clothing, 
and then for teachers, books, pleasant companions 
and merry play, more still ; and then there's the 
Bible — a big, broad mark for that ; and then the 
Sabbaths, fifty-two for the year. But oh, dear me ! 
my slate is full, and yet I don't seem to be half 
through with counting my mercies; but I must 
stop." 

Now if we only have these two feelings in. our 
hearts at the close of a year — penitence for our sins 
and gratitude for' GocVs mercies — we may be sure 
that the year on which we are soon to enter will 
be to us " a happy new year." 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

A NEW YEAR'S GREETING. — THE LIFE-BOAT. 

HHHIS beautiful picture presents a vessel that has 
-L been wrecked at sea and driven on a sand- 
bank. The crew have no means of escape, and a 
life-boat from the nearest life-saving station on the 
coast is on its way to try and rescue the poor 
sailors. That is the last voyage which this unfor- 
tunate ship will ever make. 

We have just entered on a new year. As we 
do this we may well feel as if we were taking a 
fresh start on the voyage of life. And a most 
important question for us to ask ourselves, as we 
stand on the threshold of this new year, is this, 
What can we do to make this voyage before us a 
happy and prosperous one ? Many things might 
be spoken of as desirable here : but, confining 
ourselves to the imagery of our picture, we may 
say that one of the most important things for us 
is to have a good life-boat on board our vessel. 
The voyage before us is the voyage of life. The 
vessel in which each of us is sailing is his own soul. 

(288) 



A NEW YEAR'S GREETING,— THE LIFE-BOAT. 291 

And we can take Jesus on board as our life-boat. 
He can come into our souls just as the life-boat is 
taken on board a vessel. And we may well speak 
of Jesus as the best life-boat, because of three 
things which he can do for us that no other life- 
boat can ever do for those in the vessel on board 
of which it is taken. 

1. In the first place Jesus is the best life-boat be- 
cause of the protection he can give to those with whom 
he sails. When an ordinary life-boat is taken on 
board a vessel, all the use which the sailors expect 
to make of it is to get into it and be saved if their 
vessel should spring a leak at sea and be in danger 
of sinking. Xo protection from other dangers of 
any kind is expected from the life-boat. But if 
we take Jesus as our life-boat, he can watch over 
us by night and by day. He can keep us in the 
hollow of his hand, or as the apple of his eye ; 
and we shall be perfectly safe in his care. Daniel 
had taken God as his life-boat before he was cast 
into the lions' den, and this gave him protection 
there. The Lord in whom he trusted sent his 
angel to shut the lions' mouths, and they could not 
hurt him. Daniel had this best life-boat, and we 
see how it protected him from all danger. And it 
was the same with his three friends, Shadrach, 
Meshach and Abed-nego. The king of Babylon 
threatened to throw them into the burning fiery 
furnace if they would not bow down and wor- 



292 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

ship the golden image which he had set up. They 
refused to worship his image. Then he ordered 
them to be bound hand and foot, and to be cast 
into the fiery furnace. He expected they would 
be burnt alive at once. But it was not so. The 
fire just burned the cords by which they were 
bound ; then they arose and walked up and down 
amidst the flames of the furnace. The God in 
whom they trusted, and whom they had taken as 
their life-boat, appeared to them in the form of a 
man, and walked about the furnace with them. 
No doubt that was the pleasantest walk those three 
men ever took. And when they came out from 
the furnace it was found that not a hair of their 
heads was singed. That was protection indeed ! 
And Jesus is just as able to protect his people now 
as he was then, and we may well say he is the 
best life-boat because of the protection he can give 
his people. 

2. But Jesus is the best life-boat again because 
of the help he gives his people. The sailor on board 
a vessel never thinks of looking to the life-boat 
for any help in the daily duties he has to perform. 
But if we take Jesus for our life-boat, then, when- 
ever we have anything hard to do, we can always 
get just the help we need from him. His precious 
promise to each of his people is, "I will help 
thee" (Isa. 41 : 10). How do you suppose Noah 
could ever have built the ark if God had not 



A NEW YEAR'S GREETING.— THE LIFE-BOAT. 293 

helped him? He was not a ship-builder. He 
did not live in a seaport town. There were no 
ship-carpenters living near him. So large a 
vessel had never been built before. And yet, 
when God told him to build the ark, he went right 
to work and never stopped till it was done. 

How could Moses ever have brought the chil- 
dren of Israel out of Egypt, and have led them 
through the Red Sea and the howling wilderness, 
without the help of God ? But he had taken him 
as his life-boat, and he found in him all the help 
he needed. 

How could David, with no other weapon than his 
sling and stone, ever have conquered that great 
Philistine giant, covered all over as he was with 
armor, unless God had helped him ? And if we 
take Jesus as our life-boat, we shall always find 
the help we need in him. 

3. But Jesus is the best life-boat again because 
of the blessings he bestoics on his people. The ordi- 
nary life-boat has nothing to give to any one on 
board the vessel ; but Jesus is able to give us every 
blessing that we can need. Yes, and he has prom- 
ised to do so, too. When we begin to love and 
serve him, or take him as our life-boat, he says to 
each of us, "From this day will I bless you" 
(Hag. 2:19). 

The Greeks used to tell a story of a certain 
king named Midas. The story says that the idol 



294 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

gods he worshipped were so pleased with him for 
something he had done that they promised to give 
him anything he should ask. He asked to have 
the power of turning everything he touched to 
gold. They gave it to him, as the story says. 
He took hold of the staff he used to walk with, 
and instantly it turned to gold. He sat down on 
a rock and laid his hand upon it ; in a moment it 
was a mass of gold. He went home thinking he 
was the happiest man alive. But his happiness did 
not last long. On reaching home he felt hungry, 
and called for something to eat. He took hold of 
a piece of bread, but it turned at once to gold. 
He took a cup of water to drink, but before he 
could raise it to his lips it turned to liquid gold. 
Then he was greatly distressed. Gold was very 
good for some things, but for eating and drinking 
it was not so good. The story says he asked the 
gods to take their gift back again, but they refused 
to do it, and he died of hunger. 

But Jesus has a better gift than this to bestow 
upon his people. He makes everything about them 
turn not to gold, but to good. He promises to 
withhold no good thing from them, and to " make 
all things work together for good " to them. This 
is the greatest privilege we can have. 



CHAPTER XLYII. 

A NEW YEAR'S LESSON. KINDNESS TO ANIMALS. 

THE beginning of a new year is a good time 
for settling accounts, and for taking fresh 
starts. This is the time when business people take 
an account of the goods they have in their stores, 
and lay out new plans for the year before them. 

There is one branch of business that all our 
readers have something to do with, and that is the 
business of getting on in the world ; or of trying 
to be good themselves, and to do good to others. 
Here we have a picture of a girl feeding a tiny 
little bird which has perched upon her shoulder. 
The bird seems quite at home with her ; and how 
pleased she looks to have it share her meal ! And 
this picture may very well suggest one good rule 
for us to adopt, as we begin the new year ; it is the 
rule of kindness to animals. 

Many reasons might be given why we should all 
act on the rule of showing kindness to animals ; 
but we have only room now to speak of two. 

1. The first reason why we ought to be kind to 
animals, is because they are God's creatures. 

(297) 



298 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

This is true of all the animals. And this is 
what God teaches us when he says, " Every beast 
of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thou- 
sand hills " (Ps. 50 : 10). But we have the picture 
of a little bird before us, and so we shall speak 
especially of birds now. The birds are God's 
creatures because he made them, and he takes care 
of them. How beautifully our Saviour taught us 
this lesson in his sermon on the mount, when he 
said, " Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow 
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; 
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them" (Matt. 
6 : 26). And in another place he said : "Are not 
two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them 
shall not fall on the ground without your Father " 
(Matt. 10 : 29). 

God's Kitten. — Little Sally was a tender-hearted 
girl about eight years old. She had adopted the 
rule of which we are now speaking, and was 
always kind to the animals. One day she saw her 
brother Charley, who was older than she, teasing 
and worrying a little kitten. She stopped and 
watched him for awhile, and then said : " Charley, 
dear, how can you be so cruel to that poor kitten, 
when you know it is God's kitten ? " 

That statement of Sally had a great effect on 
her brother. He had never thought of that before. 
After that when tempted to be unkind to any ani- 
mal, he remembered his sister's words, and said to 



KINDNESS TO ANIMALS. 299 

himself, " No, it's God's creature ; I must not be 
unkind to it." And this is a good reason for be- 
ing kind to animals. They are God's creatures. 

2. The other reason for being kind to animals, 
is because they are good teachers. 

It would be easy to fill a book with stories about 
the lessons taught us by the different animals. But 
we will speak of two lessons, amoug many, in 
which we may take the birds as our teachers. 

(a) One is the lesson of industry taught by birds. 

In some parts of Europe there is a bird which 
is called the turnstone. It gets this name from the 
way in which it obtains its food. This it does by 
turning over, with its strong beak, the stones on 
the sea-shore, and then picking up the insects that 
are under them. 

One day a gentleman, as he walked along the 
shore on the coast of Scotland, saw two of these 
little birds trying to turn over a dead codfish. But 
the fish was ever so many times bigger than they 
were, and they found it a hard job. But they 
went bravely to work. They pushed, first with 
their bills and then with their breasts, yet in spite 
of their pushing, the fish would not turn over. 
Then they went round to the other side, and began 
to scrape away the sand from under the fish, so 
that it might be easier to turn him over. They 
then went back to the other side and pushed with 
all their might ; but still the heavy fish would not 



300 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

move. They tried again and again, but without 
success. Then they called another bird to help 
them. There were three of them now, and they 
tried and failed, and tried and failed, but never 
gave up, till finally over went the fish, and the 
persevering little creatures were successful. That 
is a valuable lesson for us all to learn. 

(b) The other lesson is the lesson of kindness. 

The walls of a country church in England were 
covered with ivy. In this a great many sparrows 
had built their nests. One day a poor, sick, and 
crippled sparrow fell from the nest to the ground. 
There it lay, fluttering and chirping on the grass, 
and trying in vain to get back to its nest. Several 
of the sparrows tried to lift the helpless bird back 
to its place by taking its wings in their beaks, but 
in vain. Then they seemed to hold a council to- 
gether. Presently two of them flew away, and 
came back, after awhile, with a little twig about 
four inches long, and the eighth of an inch thick. 
They laid this down before the sick bird. It 
caught hold of one part with its beak, and of the 
other part with its feet, and then the other two 
birds each took hold of one end of the twig, and 
carried their sick friend back to its nest. How 
sweet this was ! Who would hurt such little creat- 
ures ? Let us be kind to the animals, because they 
are God's creatures, and because they are gopd 
teachers. 




"Si 



CHAPTEE XLVIII. 



COMING DOWN. 



THE children in this picture have been playing 
with their swing. It was fastened to the limb 
of a tree ; but the rope of which the swing was 
madejias broken, and the boy, who was on it, has 
fallen to the ground. The look on the boy's face 
seems to show that he has hurt himself, and his 
sister is clasping her hands together as if she might 
be saying, " Oh, brother, I'm very sorry for you ! v 
We have put the words " Coming Down " at the 
head of this article as its name or title. This is a 
very proper title. It expresses just what the pic- 
ture represents. 

And this title may very well suggest some 
thoughts that will be profitable to us. There are 
other ways of " coming down " besides that which 
this broken swing represents. AVe may speak of 
three different ways in which, from time to time, 
we see persons " coming down." 

1. The first of these is in the way of Provi- 
dence. This we may call the providential " coming 
down. 9 ' 

(303) 



304 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

When we speak of the providence of God we 
mean by it the way in which he rules all things in 
heaven above and on the earth beneath. As we 
look around us we see wicked men going on in 
their evil ways. In doing this they often seem to 
feel as safe and secure as this boy felt in his swing 
till the rope broke and he came down ; but sooner 
or later God is sure to bring them down. Like 
the boy in the swing, they have a fall and come 
down when they least expect it. Let us look at 
some illustrations of this providential " coming 
down." 

(a) Julian the Apostate may be our first illustra- 
tion. In the early days of Christianity there was 
a Roman emperor whose name was Julian. At one 
time he professed to be a Christian ; but after 
awhile he gave up his profession of religion, and 
became what is called an apostate. He hated the 
cause of Christ, and resolved to use all his power 
to root it out of the world and destroy it. About 
that time the province of Persia rose up in rebel- 
lion against the government of Rome. Julian 
raised a large army and marched against Persia. 
He said, " I will go and subdue the Persians, and 
then I will come back and destroy the religion of 
Christ from among men." He went on bis way ; 
but in the very first battle with the Persians he fell 
mortally wounded. As his life's blood was flowing 
out from one of the wounds he called for a bowl. 



COMING DOWN. 305 

The bowl was brought. He held it under the 
wound till it was full of blood ; and then, gnash- 
ing his teeth with rage, he threw the blood from 
the bowl up towards heaven, saying as he did so, 
" Thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean ! " Here 
we see indeed a providential " coming down." 

(b) As another illustration of providential " com- 
ing down " we may take the case of William 
Tweed, of New York. He was a very famous 
man in his day. He was a very wicked and yet a 
very rich man. He was ready to do anything, no 
matter how wrong it was, if he could make money 
by it. He became one of the richest men in New 
York. He was familiarly called " Boss Tweed," 
because he had the control of so much in the city. 

He thought himself perfectly secure in the 
position he occupied ; and if any one spoke to him 
about his wicked ways, he would not deny that he 
was doing wrong, but would simply ask, " Well, 
what are you going to do about it ? " He thought 
that no one could touch him in his high position 
of wrong-doing, and fancied himself entirely safe 
there. But at last the citizens of New York could 
bear it no longer. They rose up against him. 
The millions of money gotten by cheating he w T as 
compelled to give up. He was put in prison, and 
kept there till he died, in poverty and disgrace. 
This was another providential " coming down." 

And every one who goes on in the way of wick- 



306 FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. 

edness is sure, sooner or later, to meet with some 
such providential "coming down," because, as 
David says, " Verily there is a God that judgeth in 
the earth" 

2. But, in the second place, there is a gracious 
way of " coming down " as well as a providential 
way. 

When we are led to see our sins and repent of 
them we come down to the foot of the cross and 
give ourselves to the service of God ; and then from 
that humble position we are raised up to receive all 
the blessings of salvation. Let us look at some 
illustrations of this kind of " coming down." 

(a) Manasseh, king of Israel, is our first illus- 
tration. He was a very wicked man. We read 
about him in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33. 
He led the people into idolatry, and set up idols in 
the house of God. He did worse than any of the 
kings that were before him. He made the people 
of Israel do worse than the nations around them. 
He shed innocent blood very much, till he had 
filled Jerusalem from one end to another. And 
yet he felt himself safe in his evil ways. But at 
last the king of Babylon came and took him cap- 
tive to that city. There he was put in prison. 
And while in prison there his heart was touched 
and softened by the grace of God. He was led to 
repentance, and became a new creature. Here in- 
deed was a gracious " coming down." And after 



COMING DOWN. 307 

this change took place he was released from prison. 
He went back to his throne and his kingdom, and 
became a comfort and a blessing to all the people 
of Israel. 

(6) The apostle Paul is another example of this 
gracious " coming down." As we first hear of him, 
he was a hater and a persecutor of the infant 
Church of Christ. He was trying all he could to 
destroy it. In carrying out this bitter persecution, 
when on his way to Damascus he had a vision. 
Heaven was opened to his view. He saw Jesus 
seated at the right hand of God, and heard him 
speak. To his unspeakable astonishment he found 
that Jesus of Nazareth, whom he was persecuting 
in the person of his followers, was really the Son 
of God, sitting on the throne of heavenly glory. 
Then he fell to the earth. He repented of his sins, 
and became a true Christian. This was indeed a 
gracious "coming down." Then the persecutor 
became an apostle and a preacher. He went all 
round the world, telling of Jesus and his wondrous 
love. He wrote fourteen of the twenty-one epis- 
tles contained in the New Testament, and proved 
to be a greater blessing to the Church and to the 
world than any man who has ever lived from the 
time of our Saviour to the present time. 

(c) We may take one other example of this gra- 
cious " coming down." We find this in the mis- 
sionary field. When the Rev. Robert Moffat, the 



308 FIVE-MINUTE TAIKS. 

well-known English missionary, was laboring in 
southern Africa there was a great chief in his 
neighborhood, whose name was Africaner. He 
was a very wicked man. He spent nearly all his 
time in fighting with the other tribes. He would 
go all about the country, burning villages, and 
either killing their inhabitants or else carrying 
them oif to sell them as slaves. He was a terror 
to all the people in the country. When children 
were naughty their mothers would frighten them 
by threatening to bring Africaner to them. He 
was a curse to the whole country, and no one could 
control him. But at last it pleased God to visit 
him with his grace. His hard heart was softened. 
He was led to see how great his sins had been and 
to repent of them. He humbled himself at the 
foot of the cross, and became a true Christian. 
This was truly a gracious " coming down." And 
from this time Africaner became a changed man. 
He burned no more villages, he made no more 
slaves, he shed no more blood. He was humble 
and kind and loving and useful. He was a great 
help to the missionaries, and a comfort and a bless- 
ing wherever he went. 

And I suppose that almost every church in our 
country could give us some illustrations of this 
gracious " coming down." 

3. But there is also a loving " coming down" 
about which I wish to say a few words. 



C03IING DOWN. 309 

There is only one illustration of this "coming 
down," and this we find in the person of our 
blessed Saviour. "When he was on earth he said 
of himself, " I came down from heaven not to do 
mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." 
This was the most wonderful " coming down " that 
ever has been heard of. It was the highest coming 
down to the lowest ; it was the strongest coming 
down to the weakest ; it was the richest coming 
down to the poorest. When Jesus was in heaven 
he knew nothing but honor and glory and joy and 
gladness ; but when he came down to earth he 
knew little but shame and persecution and suffer- 
ing and death. And yet he came down willingly, 
because he loved us, and because his "coming 
down " was to lift us up to all the blessedness and 
glory which he himself has in heaven. Then how 
we should thank him for his loving "coming 
down ! " and how earnestly we should humble our- 
selves before him, and give ourselves to his service 
forever ! 




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